The role of the learner has not been foregrounded in extant analyses of Milgram’s archived data. This is in no small part due to the fact that in many conditions the learner’s responses during the memory test were prerecorded on tape. The interaction between experimenter and teacher therefore unfolded against a backdrop of relatively consistent responses from the learner. In Chapter 5, however, I argue that things are a little more complex. By using data from the ‘touch proximity’ condition, in which the learner was present in the same room as the experimenter and teacher during the experimental session, it is shown how the learner’s persistent objections to his treatment stand in contrast to his more minimal engagements in other conditions. Specifically, in this condition the learner could tailor his protests to the precise requirements of the situation, he could directly address both teacher and experimenter, and they could address him. That none of these behaviours were possible when the learner’s responses were recorded on tape highlights the oddity of the rhetorical situation in which participants found themselves, and suggests that previous analyses miss the important differences in the rhetorical affordances of Milgram’s conditions.