The article quantifies the amount of rulebreaking. The article actually compares rule breaking across participants and notes that those who were better at obeying the instructions of the experiment are the ones who refused to continue till the end.
The article doesn't invalidate the milgrim experiments. It claims that the interpretation from traditional literature is possibly wrong.
This does suggest that subjects who are bought into and understand the purpose behind what they’re doing, and are attentive to how the specific tasks they’re doing tie into the bigger picture, are more likely to be actively engaging their judgement as they go. And subjects who are just trying to follow the tasks as given to them are sort of washing their hands of the outcomes as long as they’re following the directions (which is, ironically, causing them to fail at following the directions too).
Hence why large organizations commonly compartmentalize things to the point that people don't realize they are working on an orphan crushing machine.
If they think the procedure is to read the next question when the previous one has been completed, and they do, even if the other person is screaming, they think they're "following rules". They're not the ones who came up with the procedure.
Which is the whole point: the participants were trying to follow rules, even if they made mistakes in following those rules. The idea that there was a total "breakdown" of the rules doesn't seem supported at all.
Your point is fair, but what is really nuanced is that the people who 'stopped' were the best ones at following the rules.
This seems interesting to me - they were conscientious about 'what was happening' - not just blithly following orders.
The 'rule followers' maybe were conscientiously applying the 'spirit of the test' and quit when they realized it was not reasonable.
The others were 'pressing buttons'.
Even then, it's subject to interpretation. There's a perfectly rational reason why people might subject to 'following the rules' if that's what they've been asked to do and have a sense of 'dutiful civic conduct' and 'trust in institutions'.
Instead, most participants rushed through, most likely to end their own negative experience. Which is much more nuanced that "gosh, they told me to do it."
The article doesn’t claim that the experiment was invalidated, but that some conclusions drawn from it are not well founded.
Now the interesting question is _why_ did those people who followed the rules quit at a greater rate? _Why_ did those people follow the rules more closely in the first place? Was there any variation in how the rules were presented? What is the difference in between folks who follow the rules more closely and folks who don't? What can we learn about the human condition from this?
Basically under ill guidance of authority, people can become real monsters. That is the conclusion I got from it, and is now still worse.
It's being consistently verified in real time if you track current events.
...Which is a good metaphor for the "experiment" as a whole.
Smooth shiny white walls, beakers and test tubes filled with brightly colored liquids on shiny metal tables… Science!