Simplified: People will blindly follow someone perceived as an authority figure regardless of their own moral compass. It's a famous experiment done in the 60s by Stanley Milgram. If a cop tells you to shoot a suspect, you shoot because the cop told you to. If a scientist tell you to put 110V on the testicles of a "test subject" you would because he's wearing a labcoat and you're not. There's been numerous examples of this in the news lately, including like 2 or 3 Dateline specials on it. Though, most agree that repeating the experiment how it was originally done isn't kosher science anymore because of the psychological effect it has on the subjects.