1. Father of the Obedience Experiment By Megan Goodney
Stanley Milgram
Father of the Obedience Experiment
By Megan Goodney

2. Childhood and Family Life
Parents were Samuel and Adele
Jewish Immigrants
Older sister Marjorie
Younger brother Joel

3. Childhood and Family Life
Stanley was born August 15, 1933
Began to display his intelligence in kindergarten
Got his high school degree in 3 years
Highest IQ in his class; 158

4. College Life Attended Queens College Majored in Political Science
Spent a summer touring Europe
Got his B.A. in 1954

5. College Life
Started attending Harvard’s Department of Social Relations
Was initially rejected from the department
Was mentored by Gordon Allport
Was a research assistant to Solomon Asch

6. College Life
For his dissertation, Milgram did a cross cultural experiment based on Asch’s work
Spent 2 years in Europe collecting his data
After his dissertation was complete, he got a job at Yale University

7. Adult Life
Started as an assistant professor with an annual salary of $6,500
Submitted proposals to the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Office of Naval Research.
Got approval for his proposal from the National Institute of Mental Health
Started his obedience experiment

8. Obedience Experiment

9. Obedience Experiment
“Teachers” were asked to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to the "learner" when questions were answered incorrectly
If at any point the “teacher” hesitated to inflict the shocks, the experimenter would request him to proceed with statements, such as "The experiment requires that you continue”

10. Obedience Experiment
Those who questioned authority were in the minority. 65% of the “teachers” were willing to progress to the maximum voltage level
In general, more "teachers" obeyed when (1) the authority figure was in close proximity; (2) teachers felt they could pass on responsibility to others; and (3) experiments took place under the sponsorship of a respected organization.

11. Obedience Experiment
Obeyed but justified themselves. Subjects that were obedient participants gave up responsibility for their actions, blaming the experimenter
Obeyed but blamed themselves. Subjects that felt badly about what they had done and were quite harsh on themselves
Rebelled. Subjects who questioned the authority of the experimenter and argued there was a greater ethical dilemma calling for the protection of the learner over the needs of the experimenter

12. Obedience Experiment
“A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act, and without pangs of conscious so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority. This is, perhaps, the most fundamental lesson of our study: ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.” –Stanley Milgram

13. Adult Life
Met his future wife, Alexandra Menkin, during the year of his obedience experiment
She was a child of Jewish European immigrants
Were married on December 10, 1961

14. Lost-Letter Technique
In the summer of 1963, Milgram was hired by Harvard to return to the Department of Social Relations, again as an assistant professor on a three-year contract
He and his students developed the lost-letter technique
It is based on the belief that if you came across an unmailed letter lying on the sidewalk, the right thing to do would be to find a mailbox and drop it in

15. Lost-Letter Technique
They dropped the letters in four different settings: in phone booths, on sidewalks, inside stores, and under windshield wipers with a note saying, “found near car”
They had each of the letters addressed to one of four recipients, with 100 letters going to each recipient: Friends of the Communist Party, Friends of the Nazi Party, Medical Research Associates, and a private individual Mr. Walter Carnap

16. Adult Life
During this time, he and Sasha had their first child Michelle in 1964
Three years later, they had their second child, Marc
Milgram was a dedicated father, spending much time playing games, taking trips, and talking with his children

17. Adult Life
His contract with Harvard was extended in 1966 for one year as a lecturer, but he was not accepted for tenure at the end of the year
City University of New York (CUNY), with its recently formed graduate program, offered him not only an entry into a full professorship, but also asked him to head the social psychology program for its Graduate Center

18. Small World Experiment
Beginning in 1967, Milgram carried out a series of experiments, known as the "small world experiment," examining the average path length for social networks of people in the United States
Milgram's work developed out of a desire to learn more about the probability that two randomly selected people would know each other. Milgram's experiment was designed to measure these path lengths by developing a procedure to count the number of ties between any two people

19. Small World Experiment
Information packets were initially sent to randomly selected individuals in Omaha or Wichita. They included letters, which detailed the study's purpose, and basic information about a target contact person in Boston
When and if the package eventually reached the contact person in Boston, the researchers could examine the roster to count the number of times it had been forwarded from person to person

20. Adult Life Published Obedience to Authority in 1974
The time Milgram used to write his Obedience to Authority was actually during a fellowship which took him, with his family, to Paris for one of his studies of mental maps
Mental maps are mental representations of the layout of one's environment

21. Adult Life
He also made a number of films; some based on his own work, others about social psychology in general Milgram gave around 140 talks; most were on topics other than obedience
He made his own film about the obedience experiments

22. Adult Life He also conducted a number of experiments on the urban life
He worked with Harry From to produce the movie, The City and the Self in  This movie was about Milgram’s “The Experience of Living in Cities,” which was an article about the differences in behavior brought about by urban environments

23. Achievements
Milgram’s work appeared in a number of journals, including the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Sociometry, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and Psychology Today. 
CUNY named him as Distinguished Professor of Psychology in 1980. 
In 1983, he was selected to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

24. Discussion Questions
Why do you think individuals follow the instructions of authority, even if they are technically able to disobey?
Do you think Milgram’s study is time-bound (limited to the early 1960’s when his studies were conducted)? 
Do you feel like the obedience experiment was ethical?