Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram (
August 15,
1933 â€"
December 20,
1984) was a
psychologist at
Yale University,
Harvard University and the
City University of New York. While at
Yale, he conducted the
small-world experiment (the source of the
six degrees of separation concept) and the
Milgram experiment on obedience to
authority. He also introduced the concept of
familiar strangers.
Although considered one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, he never took a psychology course as an undergraduate at
Queens College, New York, where he earned his
Bachelor's degree in
political science in
1954. He applied to a
Ph.D. program in
social psychology at
Harvard University and was initially rejected due to lack of psychology background. He was accepted in
1954 after taking six courses in psychology, and graduated with the Ph.D. in
1960. Milgram had a number of significant influences. Among his influences at Harvard were psychologists
Solomon Asch and
Gordon Allport (Milgram, 1977).
In
1984, Milgram died of a
heart attack at the age of 51 in the city of his birth,
New York.
Main article: Milgram experiment
In
1963, Milgram submitted the results of his
Milgram experiments in the article "Behavioral study of obedience". In the ensuing controversy that erupted, the
APA held up his application for membership due to questions about the ethics of his work. Ten years later, in
1974, Milgram published
Obedience to Authority and was awarded the annual social psychology award by the
AAAS (mostly for his work over the social aspects of obedience). Although inspired by the
1961 trial of
Adolph Eichmann, his models were later also used to explain the
1968 My Lai massacre (including authority training in the military, depersonalizing the "enemy" through race and cultural differences, etc.). The results of this study inspired Laurence Kolberg's 6 Stages of Moral Development--(you should link to LK and the 6 stages)
In
1976,
CBS presented a movie about obedience experiments:
The Tenth Level with
William Shatner as Stephen Hunter, a Milgram-like scientist. Milgram himself was a consultant for the film.
A French political thriller, titled
I... comme Icare (
"I"...as in Icarus), involves a key scene where Milgram's experiment on obedience to authority is explained and shown.
In 1986, musician
Peter Gabriel wrote a song called
We do what we're told (Milgram's 37), referring to the number of fully obedient participants in Milgram's Experiment 18: A Peer Administers Shocks. In this one, 37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole series.
Main article: Small world phenomenon
The
six degrees of separation concept originates from Milgram's "small world experiment" in
1967 that tracked chains of acquaintances in the US. In the experiment, Milgram sent several packages to random people, asking them to forward the package, by hand, to someone specific.
*Milgram, Stanley. "
The Small World Problem".
Psychology Today, May 1967. pp 60 - 67
* Milgram, S. (1974),
Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View ISBN 006131983X
* Milgram, S. (1974),
"The Perils of Obedience",
Harper's Magazine* Milgram, S. (1977),
The individual in a social world: Essays and experiments / Stanley Milgram. ISBN 0201043823.
** Abridged and adapted from
Obedience to Authority.
* Blass, T. (2004).
The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram. ISBN 0738203998
*
stanleymilgram.com - site maintained by Dr Thomas Blass
*
milgramreenactment.org - site documenting Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment by UK artist Rod Dickinson
*
'The Man Who Shocked the World' article in Psychology Today by Thomas Blass
