Stanley Milgram
American social psychologist known for the obedience experiments
Social psychologist who ran the Yale obedience experiments in 1961 and 1962 and published them in 1963. He also devised the small-world and lost-letter studies. His obedience work is central to debates on research ethics.
Why this person matters
Milgram's experiments showed that many ordinary participants continued to deliver what they believed were severe shocks when an experimenter told them to. They became a main reason students discuss deception and consent in research. The studies depended on a confederate who played the learner with scripted distress.
Main contributions
Obedience experiments
Run at Yale from 1961 and published in 1963 as Behavioral Study of Obedience. Participants believed they were giving a learner shocks of 15 to 450 volts, but no shocks were given. About 65 per cent went to the maximum level. Obedience fell when the learner was closer or when other participants defied the experimenter.
Small-world experiment
Randomly chosen starters in Omaha, Nebraska tried to pass a folder through acquaintances to a stockbroker in Boston. About a quarter of chains were completed, with roughly six intermediaries on average (sources differ; one gives five). The work gave rise to the phrase six degrees of separation.
Lost-letter technique
Stamped letters were left in public places, and the share that was posted measured community attitudes without asking people directly. In New Haven, letters addressed to the Friends of the Nazi Party or the Communist Party were mailed about a third as often as those addressed to a medical research association or a private individual.
Context and limits
Diana Baumrind's 1964 critique argued that Milgram was responsible for participants' wellbeing and should have stopped when they showed distress. Critics also questioned whether participants believed the shocks were real. Milgram surveyed participants afterwards and reported that about 84 per cent were glad to have taken part. Gina Perry's 2012 book Behind the Shock Machine concluded that published descriptions did not match what happened; Nestar Russell and John Picard objected that she ignored supportive replications.
In your introductory course
Social psychology.Milgram appears in the social influence section and in discussions of research ethics. Students learn the shock paradigm, the 65 per cent figure and why such studies would now need much stronger safeguards.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 12.4. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1960
Became an assistant professor at Yale.
- 1963
Published Behavioral Study of Obedience and moved to Harvard's Department of Social Relations.
- 1967
Became head of the new social psychology doctoral programme at the CUNY Graduate Center.
- 1974
Published Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View.
Sources
- Encyclopedia.com, Milgram, StanleyReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Milgram experimentReference work. Reference article inspected.