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Following on from the studies of Milgram and Blass, the aim of this study is to analyze how those observing a situation of submission under Milgram’s authority divide up responsibility between the experimenter, the teacher, and the learner. In study 1, ninety participants watched part of a film made by Milgram and were asked to divide up 100 % of the responsibility depending on two variables : the outcome (the teacher obeys versus disobeys), and the status of the experimenter (Milgram versus an employee versus a naive subject). In situations of obedience, responsibility was attributed only toward Milgram, whereas in situations of disobedience, this was observed only when the experimenter was someone other than Milgram. The answers to the open questions used in study 1 along with the twelve interviews that comprised study 2 show that responsibility is only attributed to the person in authority when they are more charismatic. It also shows that it is less relevant to compare how responsibility is attributed in situations of obedience versus situations of disobedience : the division is highly complex because several factors are involved, and the question does not have the same meaning in the two situations.