In fairness, Milgram did not anticipate that the research subjects would experience as much stress as they did during the experiment. Second, the experiment raises a serious ethical issue in that it held the potential for causing long-term harmful changes to the psychological well-being of the research subjects. On one hand, Milgram did carefully and conscientiously debrief his subjects in connection with which he also reassured them that their behavior was perfectly normal. Likewise, he made sure that each subject met the sham memory research subject and that there was no doubt that the latter had not actually been harmed at all and that they were not angry at the research subjects. Finally, Milgram conducted long-term follow-up interviews in which the research subjects indicated that they suffered...

They may consider the experiment to have been worthwhile, but they may not be consciously aware of the extent to which they suffered because of it. The experiment forced them to recognize attributes of their person that may not have been in their interest to experience first-hand. Ultimately, the experiment was not unethical at the time only because the experimenters failed to anticipate the possible harms associated with it. Today, the same experiment would not satisfy ethical research guidelines because of the way it could affect the research subjects.