Stanley Milgram
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Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984) was a social 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. Most likely because of his controversial Milgram Experiment, Milgram was denied tenure at Harvard after becoming an assistant professor there, but instead accepted an offer to become a tenured full professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (Blass, 2004). Milgram had a number of significant influences, including psychologists Solomon Asch and Gordon Allport (Milgram, 1977). Milgram himself influenced other psychologists such as Alan C. Elms, who was his first graduate assistant on the obedience experiment.
In 1984, Milgram died of a heart attack at the age of 51 in the city of his birth, New York. He left behind a widow, Alexandra "Sasha" Milgram, and two children.
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[edit] Obedience to authority
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 for a year because of questions about the ethics of his work, but then granted him full membership. 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). Inspired in part 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 racial and cultural differences, etc.).
In 1976, CBS presented a made-for-television 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, though his personal life did not resemble that of the Shatner character.
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.
The award-winning short film "Atrocity" (2005) re-enacts Milgram's obedience to authority experiment.
[edit] Small World Phenomenon
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 United States. In the experiment, Milgram sent several packages to random people, asking them to forward the package, by hand, to someone specific.
With specified condition "If you do not know the target person on a personal basis, do not try to contact him directly. Instead, mail this folder to a personal acquaintance who is more likely than you to know the target person." in the letter.
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- Milgram, Stanley. "The Small World Problem". Psychology Today, May 1967. pp 60 - 67
- Milgram, S. (1974), Obedience to Authority; An Experimental View ISBN 0-06-131983-X
- 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 0-201-04382-3.
- Abridged and adapted from Obedience to Authority.
- Blass, T. (2004). The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram. ISBN 0-7382-0399-8
[edit] External links
- stanleymilgram.com - site maintained by Dr Thomas Blass
- milgramreenactment.org - site documenting Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment by UK artist Rod Dickinson
- Milgram Page - page documenting Milgram's Obedience to Authority experiment
- 'The Man Who Shocked the World' article in Psychology Today by Thomas Blass
- [1] and [2] - papers on the ethics of the Obedience to Authority experiments by Milgram's research assistant, Alan Elms
- Pinter & Martin, Stanley Milgram's British publishers
- [3] - link to the short film "Atrocity," which re-enacts the Milgram Experiment
- Guide to the Stanley Milgram Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library
