Was the Milgram Experiment Repeated in 2004?

Four years ago four different Wendy's Restaurant store managers received calls from a man who identified himself as a police officer and claimed that store employees had stolen money and needed to be searched. All four managers complied with the man and performed the requested search. Could this have been another psychology student reenacting the Milgram experiment to see how far someone would go in following instructions? They followed his instructions without even knowing the caller or seeing him. Could it be that much of the world has not learned anything since Stanley Milgram performed his famous experiment forty years ago? Have we grown complacent, obeying the spoken as well as unspoken orders of those who do not have our best interests at heart? It seems like a distinct possibility.

Strip searches lead to Wendy's suspensions


By Stephanie Vosk, Globe
Correspondent
February 26, 2004

Managers of Wendy's restaurants in Abington, Wareham, Whitman, and West Bridgewater have been suspended with pay, after they strip-searched employees, the restaurants' corporate office announced yesterday.

Bob Bertini, a spokesperson for Wendy's International Inc., said four Wendy's restaurants fell prey to a scam on Friday, when a caller who identified himself as a police officer informed managers that an employee may have stolen money from the restaurants.

The caller gave the managers instructions to perform a strip search of a single employee at each location, and the managers complied, Bertini said.

Later, however, each manager became suspicious, and reported the call and the incident to local police.

"This is just a very unfortunate situation, and we feel very badly about it," said Bertini. "The managers who were duped are law-abiding citizens. They thought they were responding to direct orders by the police."

None of the searched employees, who are also being paid, has returned to work, Bertini said. All have been offered counseling, he added.

All of the incidents occurred between 7 and 11:30 p.m. Friday, Bertini said.

He said he believes the caller gave the managers enough information to identify one
employee to be searched.

Details of the original Milgram experiment