Blind obedience to authority and a desire to do good are major causes of the evil man inflicts upon his fellow man.

The famous or infamous Milgram Experiment of 1961 sought to uncover evidence about why humans are capable of incredible evil. It led to a conclusion that "evil" men such as the Nazi Germans that murdered millions of persons were "just following orders."

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But now, psychologists have found the Milgram Experiment, which demonstrated how ordinary people have the capacity to inflict great harm upon others only if authoritarian figures give orders, may have been completely misunderstood or even compromised.

In his 1961 experiment, Professor Stanley Milgram of Yale University ordered volunteers to give what they actually thought were real electric shocks to students that committed mistakes whenever they tried to do simple tasks.

Of course, these "students" were actors but the volunteers truly believed the experiment was genuine.

According to the best known version of the study, two thirds of the volunteers continued administering electric shocks all the way up to a maximum voltage of 450 volts.

These experiments were devised to investigate the motivation behind German Nazi Adolf Eichmann's war crimes during the Holocaust. Eichmann and his accomplices claimed they were "just following orders" when they murdered millions of Jews.

A recent paper published in the British Journal of Social Psychology by Professor Alex Haslam from the University of Queensland and his team argues the point that the meaning and interpretation of the Milgram Experiment has been widely misunderstood.

After dissecting the Yale archives, the team gained valuable access to some 659 volunteers' feedback among the 800 volunteers.

Researchers discovered that most volunteers said they were quite happy to have participated in the electric shock experiment. The volunteers were definitely far from being distressed by the experience.

Professor Haslam concluded the main reason why participants were not even distressed is that they did not think or realize that they had done anything wrong.

Milgram's ability to convince the volunteers that they've made an important contribution to science actually made the volunteers feel good about themselves after participating in the experiment.

Haslam said his analysis certainly provide fresh, new insight into the psychology of oppression. The analysis also coincide with other evidence that perpetrators are generally motivated by the drive to accomplish something that is worthy and noble and , not by a desire to do something evil.

On a concluding note, Stephen Reicher from the University of St. Andrew and co-author of the study added this new analysis suggests there were ethical and theoretical issues raised by Milgram's studies.

It's also disturbing to think that in order to protect the participants' own well being, Milgram led them to believe that harming others can be justified as long as it is done for a good cause.

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