Stanley Milgram
August 15, 1933 –
December 20, 1984
Shock Machine
Experimenter:
Obedience
and Authority
Insane or onto
something?
S1
1933: Milgram’s Birth
In comparison:
 20th Amendment is approved
(establishing beginning and
ending of terms of elected
federal offices)
 FDR gets sworn in as US
President
 Puts forth the “New Deal”
in response to the Great
Depression
Amendment is
established (ends
Prohibition)
 Radio becomes the dominant
mass media in homes

21st
FDR getting sworn in as President
S2
Family History
Parents: Samuel
and Adele
 Jewish Immigrants
 Came to America from
Eastern Europe
 Married in February 1931
 Lived in the Bronx
Samuel: Expert baker and
cake decorator
Adele: Stay-at-home-
mother; always cheerful; the
favorite aunt to her nieces and
nephews; known for giving
really good advice
Siblings: Marjorie
and Joel
Marjorie: 1 ½ years older;
oldest child; would rather
have been an only child
Joel: 5 years younger;
youngest child; kind of
overlooked unless being
compared to his older siblings;
Partner in Crime with brother
The
Bronx
S3
The Early Years
Elementary School: PS 77
 Very intelligent, even from a very early age
 At 4 years old, he could recite the
Pledge of Allegiance and Mother
Goose Nursery Rhymes by heart!
 Showed an early interest in Science
 Stanley’s schooling vs. Joel’s schooling
 Hebrew School
 At his Bar Mitzvah, he gave a speech on
the current events of his time, showing
concern for the treatment of the Jewish
people.
Chemistry Set for
Children
S4
The Teenage Years
School: James Monroe High
School (1947)
 Tracking System
 Finished high school in three years due to
taking summer classes in addition to an extra
class or two each semester.
 Bernard Fried: Classmate and one of
Milgram’s closest boyhood friends
 Philip Zimbardo: Classmate of Milgram’s
 Graduated same year as Milgram
 Future President of the American
Psychological Association
 Future Social Psychologist
 Best known for the Standford Prison
Experiment and it’s impact on society
and future research.
S5
Graduating Class of 1950
Milgram is 2nd from right in the
back row.
Zimbardo is 7th from right in the
back row.
Zimbardo’s
Yearbook Photo
Milgram’s Yearbook
Photo
S6
The College Years
Queens College (1950)
 The choice to enroll here was based on it’s location
and the fact that it was tuition free, plus it was
academically a smart choice.
 Was ranked 2nd in all the nation by the Ford
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Foundation in 1953.
Major = Political Science, but also took other courses
in English Lit, Music, and Art. He even minored in Art!
Received the School Award in Political Science and
the Certificate of Excellence in Forensics.
Qualified for membership in the National Political
Science Honors Society.
Graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
President of the International Relations Club and
Vice President of the Debating Society.
Phi Beta Kappa’s
Stole (above) and
Key (below)
S7
Queens College
Poli Sci Building
S8
The College Years cont.
Senior Year (1953)
 Toured France, Spain, and Italy on a motorized bicycle
in the summer before Senior Year.
 Master of the French language
 Became impoverished while in Europe
 Needing to return home, he approached a German
ship bound for the States begging them relentlessly to
let him aboard and his persistence paid off, as he was
let aboard and allowed to work as a radio
communicator and the crewmates even let him stay in
a comfortable room!
S9
Family Tragedy Strikes
December 11, 1953
 Samuel suffers a coronary thrombosis and dies in his sleep.
 Milgram family was hit hard.
 Life Insurance Policy
 Adele had to find a job at another bakery.
 Marjorie helped her mother out briefly.
 Samuel’s premature death prompted Stanley to prepare his future
family and himself should he himself meet an early demise.
 He predicted to his wife in their first year of marriage that he
would die at 55, which at the time of the prediction was shocking
because of his perfect bill of health.
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Graduate School
Columbia University’s School of
International Affairs
 Short-lived partly because of Bernard Fried.
 Spring Semester of 1954
 The Dean recommended that Milgram consider the graduate
studies in the Department of Social Relations at Harvard.
 Took this as a sign to get into Psychology!
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Grad School-Round 2
Harvard (1954)
 Ford Foundation Fellowship Award
 $1,800 towards one year of graduate school.
 Original application to Harvard was rejected due to not
having any Psych courses under his belt.
 Wrote a letter of disappointment contradicting the
decision:
 “If he had had the relevant background prep in psych,
he would not have qualified for the Ford fellowship,
which was created mainly for students who had
undergrad education in fields other than the behavioral
sciences.”
 Harvard’s Office of Special Students
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Harvard University
Circa 1950
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1
3
Harvard Journey cont.
Solomon E. Asch
 Known as Milgram’s most important scientific
influence
 Milgram was his teaching assistant for a fall
semester for Social Relations 107, then his
research assistant in the following spring.
 Wrote a letter to the department chairman
expressing how pleased he was with Milgram’s
work.
 This letter ensured that Milgram would be
given assistantships for the rest of his Harvard
career.
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14
Experimenting at
Harvard
 New persona to go with a new year
 More spontaneous, more sociable, developed a
wry sense of humor, and even cockier.
 Peyote trips with Robert Palmer
 Overzealousness catches up with him
Peyote
 While taking assistantships, students were only
allowed to take 3 courses.
 Naturally, he signed up for 4 courses and was
called on it.
 He wrote to the Dean to appeal this decision
and perhaps it was because of his cockiness, but
his request was denied.
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Dissertation Time
 Chosen topic was “National Character”
 Traits that distinguish one culture from
another
 Wanted to compare differences between
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cultures on conformity
Gordon Allport
Norway and the US
Research Training Fellowship--$3,200
October 5th, 1956– he departed for Norway
 Researched at the University of Oslo
 Oslo has students from all over Norway, so
any information gained from the research
was representative of the Norwegian
culture.
Gordon Allport
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Dissertation cont.
 The results from the Norwegian experiments
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disproved Milgram’s original hypothesis.
Norway vs. the US becomes Norway vs. France
Milgram chooses to re-run the test
Fellowship close to running out!
Additional test were created to see how the
Norwegian non-collegiate population responds
to different situations.
 Censure Condition
 Bell Condition
 Results:
 The French subjects conformed less than their
Norwegian counterparts in each of the
different experimental conditions.
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Returning to the US
 Confidence for single-handedly breaking new ground in cross-
cultural studies
 Solomon Asch’s Job Proposal
 Pros:
 Working with a man of Asch’s stature
 Salary of $4,200
 Cons:
 No further intellectual gain to be gained
 Not having ample time to devote to his dissertation
 Accepted the job, but with some assumptions
 Time to write his dissertation
Princeton
University
circa 1960
 Formal affiliation with the institute of Princeton to put on
his résumé.
 Didn’t live up to his expectations
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1960: A Big Year
 Toyed with ideas to spin off Asch’s conformity
experiments.
 Turned in his completed dissertation.
 October 7th, 1960: applied for a small grant proposal of
$2,000
 Led to “self-testing”, naturally.
 October 10th, 1960: Letter to Allport
 October-November: letters of inquiry about funding to
governmental agencies were sent out
 1st letter: (Oct. 14) to Luigi Petrullo – head of the
Group Psychology Branch of the Office of Naval
Research
 2nd letter: (mid Nov.) to the National Institute of
Mental Health
 3rd letter: (mid Nov.) to the National Science
Foundation
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Milgram Meets Romance
Alexandra "Sasha" Menkin
 Daughter of Jewish immigrants
 Born in the Bronx
 Father died when she was young
 Graduated from Hunter College in Manhattan
 Met Stanley at a party in the Inwood section of Manhattan in January
1961
 Mothers had opposing views of the courtship
 Sasha was 4 1/2 years older than Stanley
 His mother was concerned at first, but eventually warmed up to
Sasha
 Her mother was smitten with the match right off the bat
 Married on December 10, 1961 at the Brotherhood Synagogue in
Greenwich Village
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From an Idea to Reality
Obedience to Authority
 Credited Asch to a point
 Shock Box Sketch Drama: Stolen idea?
 Interest from the three agencies, though the NSF seemed the most
promising.
 January 27, 1961: Request for $30,348 for a two year period
 May 3,1961: Approved for funding!
 Responsibility to Subjects
 "A final but important note must be added concerning the
investigator's responsibility to persons who serve in the experiment.
There is no question that the subject is placed in a difficult
predicament and that strong feelings are aroused. Under these
circumstances it is highly important that measurements be taken to
insure the subject's well-being before he is discharged from the
laboratory. Every effort will be made to set the subject at ease and
to assure him of the adequacy of his performance…"
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Obedience Study cont.
 Each study included the following:
 A "Learner"- James McDonough
 A "Teacher" – Participants ranged in age from 20-50 years old
 An Authority Figure – John Williams
 A Shock Machine– a fake one, of course
 What Milgram found out about Obedience to Authority
 The four conditions
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Family Life
 November 1964: Sasha and Stanley welcome a daughter
named Michele!
 January 1967: Sasha and Stanley welcome a sin named Marc!
 Once the children were born, Sasha become a homemaker.
 There were times when Stanley was taken away from his family
because of work, but despite this, he was a very devoted
father. He would play games and even take trips with his
children!
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Six Degrees of Separation
1967: Small World Experiment
 160 Participants
 Limitations
 Only had Target's name and address
 Must be mailed
 Must know recipient on a first name basis
 Ultimate goal for the participants
 Ultimate goal for the researchers
 End results
 "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" mid 90's
 http://youtu.be/vOUdy2J0lfU
 Criticisms
 Microsoft Study 2008
 6.6 people
24
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Getting Tenure
 March 1, 1967: Accepts a teaching position at City University
of New York (CUNY) and gets tenure, when Harvard wouldn't
offer a tenured position, possibly because of how his shock
experiment was viewed by the public.
 While he was there, he was in high demand to have as a
dissertation supervisor. While at CUNY, he chaired FOURTEEN
doctoral dissertations!
 In 1980, CUNY names Milgram "Distinguished Professor of
Psychology".
 In 1983, he was selected to be a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences.
25
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All Good Things Must End
 December 20, 1984: Milgram suffers a heart
attack (his fifth) hours after hearing a
student, Christina Taylor, successfully defend
her doctoral dissertation.
 He left behind his wife, Sasha, and their two
children, Michele and Marc.
 He died at age 51.
26
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Replicating the Shocks
 Years later, Milgram's work still lives on.
 1975: The Tenth Level with William Shatner (Milgram was
still alive and even helped produce this)
 V For Vendetta- Delia mentions the shock experiment
without directly naming Milgram
 1986: Peter Gabriel writes "We Do What We're Told
(Milgram's 37)
 2005: Atrocity re-enacts the Shock Experiments
 Video of replicating the Shock Experiments: Touch of Evil
 http://youtu.be/HwqNP9HRy7Y
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Questions?
 Would you have been able to go to the XXX zone?
 Do you think it was ethical of Milgram to deceive the participants with
the notion that they were actually shocking and harming people?
 Would you have done something differently if you were to replicate
the Shock Experiment?
 Does the Six Degrees of Separation shock you? Are you surprised that
the number is six?
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Resources
 Blass, T. (2004). The man who shocked the world: The life and legacy
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of Stanley Milgram. New York: Basic Books.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/stanleymilgram.ht
ml
Perry, G. (2012). Behind the shock machine: the untold story of the
notorious milgram psychology experiments. The New Press.
Video of replicating the Shock Experiments: Touch of Evil
 http://youtu.be/HwqNP9HRy7Y
 "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" mid 90's
 http://youtu.be/vOUdy2J0lfU
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