Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, ran experiments from 1961 to test how far ordinary people would follow an authority figure's orders. Volunteers believed they were giving electric shocks to a learner in another room, with shocks rising to levels that would be fatal if real. Every participant went up to 300 volts, and 65% continued all the way to 450 volts despite the learner banging on the wall and then going silent. Milgram published his first findings in 1963 and expanded them in a 1974 book. The results have been repeated in many countries with broadly similar outcomes, though scholars still dispute how they should be interpreted.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.