Stanley Milgram was an American social psychologist who conducted a series of revealing experiments in the 1960s that explored the nature of obedience to authority. His work has had a profound impact on our understanding of human behaviour and the potential for evil.
Early Life and Education
Stanley Milgram was born in New York City in 1933. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Queens College in 1954 and a doctorate in social psychology from Harvard University in 1960.
The Obedience Experiments
Milgram’s most famous experiments were conducted at Yale University in 1961. In these experiments, participants were asked to administer electric shocks to another person (actually an actor) who was strapped into a chair. The shocks were supposedly part of a learning experiment, but in reality, they were fake.
The participants were told that the shocks would be painful but not harmful. However, as the experiment progressed, the shocks became increasingly intense. Despite the obvious distress of the victim, most participants continued to administer the shocks, even when they reached the maximum level of 450 volts.
Results and Interpretation
Milgram’s experiments revealed that a surprisingly high percentage of participants (65%) were willing to obey the experimenter’s orders and administer the shocks, even when they knew it was causing pain to another person. He interpreted these results as evidence of the ‘agentic state,’ a psychological state in which individuals become so focussed on following orders that they lose sight of their own moral values. He argued that this state could lead to atrocities such as the Holocaust. This experiment has had a lasting impact on the field of psychology, helping us to understand the power of authority and the potential for evil that exists within all of us.
Other Contributions
In addition to his work on obedience, Milgram also made significant contributions to other areas of social psychology, including:
* **The small world phenomenon:** Milgram’s ‘six degrees of separation’ experiment showed that most people are connected to each other through a small number of intermediaries. * **The lost letter technique:** Milgram developed a method for measuring the honesty of individuals by sending letters to random addresses and asking the recipients to return them. * **The bystander effect:** Milgram’s research on the bystander effect showed that people are less likely to help someone in need when there are other people present.
Stanley Milgram was a brilliant and controversial psychologist whose work has had a profound impact on our understanding of human behaviour. His experiments on obedience have shown us the potential for evil that exists within all of us, and they have served as a warning against the dangers of blindly following authority.
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