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What happened when teachers could see or touch the learner in a variation of the Milgram experiment?

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Stanley Milgram American social psychologist Stanley Milgram with the “shock generator” used in his famous experiment at Yale University in the 1960s.

In the Milgram experiment, the proximity of the "learner" to the "teacher" significantly influenced the level of obedience. When participants were placed in a variation where they could see the learner and were forced to interact with them, they were less likely to obey the experimenter's instructions to administer electric shocks.12

While obedience was highest when the learner was kept in a separate room, the rates of compliance decreased when the learner was in close proximity to the subject, such as being in the same room or near enough to touch. These findings highlight how physical distance and direct interaction can impact an individual's willingness to inflict harm under the direction of an authority figure.21