We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)

"We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" is a song written and recorded by English musician Peter Gabriel. Although Gabriel started performing the song in 1980, it did not appear on a studio album until its inclusion on So six years later.

The song was inspired by the Milgram experiments, which were conducted by the Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in 1961. Milgram sought to measure obedience and conformity by determining if a participant would demonstrate a willingness to deliver lethal shocks to an individual at the request of an authority figure. In the 18th variation of the experiment, 37 of the 40 participants provided a subsidiary act in administering what they assumed were 450 volts of electricity to another individual, who unbeknownst to the participant, was played by an actor receiving fake electric shocks. Gabriel dedicated "We Do What We're Told (Milgram's 37)" to those who refused to obey the authority figure's instructions.