Talk:Stanley Milgram/Archives/2013

Untitled
I object to the link to Mad Scientist on this page. Milgram's experiments may have had ethical issues, but he certainly wasn't mad. If there are no objections, I will remove this link. Darksun 10:31, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Confusing
The page says: "He took a psychology course as an undergraduate at Queens College, New York, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in political science in 1954."

But http://www.stanleymilgram.com/facts.php says "Although Milgram was to become one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, he never took a single psychology course as an undergraduate at Queens College, where he obtained his BA in Political Science." (retrieved 11:56 09 Sept 2009 (UTC)

also

"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."

could be expanded? the same reference gives:

"Rejected at first because he did not have any background in psychology, he was accepted provisionally after he took six psychology courses at three different New York-area schools in the summer of 1954." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.109.245.158 (talk) 00:03, 10 September 2009 (UTC)

Mai Lai Massacre has nothing to do with Milgram's experiment
Who ever connected the My Lai Massacre to Milgram's experiment of disobedience is incorrect. The My Lai Massacre (1968) occurred five years after Milgram's experiment (1963). As i understand it, Milgram drew his inspiration from the trial and execution (1961-2) of Adolf Eichmann. Milgram speaks of Eichmann in "The Perils of Obedience" (section:"Duty Without Conflict", paragraph 16) as being an example of the agentic state that Milgram mentions in "TPoD." As an aside, milgram may have drawn a connection to the My Lai Massacre in Obedience to Authority, which was published in 1974. Moreover, Milgram may have indicated his intent to consider the authority training, et cetera, as an after-thought of sorts, but there is no connection between the experiment and the Massacre except for the implication of the experiment's results.


 * I am proposing a rework of certain sections of this page. Obedience of authority is indeed a subject that Milgram is concerned with but he is not the "be-all-and-end-all" of obedience authority.  Indeed, Philip Zimbardo is a key psychologist concerning authoritarian structures, whether dispostional or situational.  I propose renaming the section, obedience to authotity *experiment*.  I can bring a wide range of expertise to this subject also.--Knucmo2 22:33, 15 Mar 2005 (UTC)

David Cesarani, a distinguished Holocaust historian, in his new book, "Becoming Eichmann," says that Milgram's initial experiments weren't inspired by the Eichmann case, although Milgram soon thereafter, in his publications, made the connection. --Christofurio 20:25, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

April, 2010 Repairing this mess after four years
In the wake of the My Lai Massacre, CBS television made special efforts to locate any of the soldiers who took part in the actual shooting. They located one troop who consented to appear on the CBS program 60 Minutes. Reporter Mike Wallace interviewed the young man. The troop admitted that, along with the rest of his platoon, at My Lai he shot women, children, and babies. Wallace asked him to confirm: babies? When Wallace discussed "responsibility" the youth might as well have READ VERBATIM the answers from published research of Dr. Stanley Milgram. My mouth dropped open because I had read Milgram's research papers in 1967 (and they influenced my decision when drafted).

Consequently and subsequently: when Milgram's book "Obedience to Authority" was published, in the back was a special Appendix. The appendix was a transcript of the 60 Minutes episode. THIS forgotten memory is why My Lai and Milgram are linked together in many American minds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.128.142.167 (talk) 18:44, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Yale not Harvard!
It is surprising and quite possibly galling that the Wikipedia entry for Stanley Milgram, one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century, contains such a basic error as to locate his famous obedience experiments, not mention his early professorship, at Harvard University. The average Psych 001 student, not to mention the upperclassman who has taken a class in social psychology, is well be able localize Milgram's famous experiments, as his documentary film so clearly indicates, as occurring at Yale University, where Milgram was, not coincidentally, a member of the faculty during the mid-sixties.

What about the pointing experiment?
I'm trying to track down information on an experiment that was attributed to Milgram as far as I know. As it was recounted to me, the experiment involved a varying number of individuals stopping suddenly in the middle of a busy city and simultaneously looking upwards (at nothing in particular). My recollection is that when two seperate individuals did it, then a few people would look up to see what they were looking at, if five individuals did it, then a larger number of individuals would stop and 'join in' and at the ultimate - thirty-seven individuals supposedly did so, and they stopped traffic for half an hour as hundreds and hundreds of individuals stopped and joined in. Does anyone know anything further about this study? Thanks! Luke, Australia. 202.164.195.212 00:50, 28 December 2006 (UTC)Luke

i really need to know more about this person
i really need to know more about this person this page needs more info to give so i can do my project better and easier ''... added at 05:38, 22 April 2007) by 202.128.20.13''


 * The library (with perhaps interlibrary loan system) is your friend. -- Hoary 05:53, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Jewish?
At the bottom of the page is categorizes Milgram as a "Jewish American scientist", I totally disagree that he is jewish unless someone can back this claim up  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.84.113.41 (talk) 10:25, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
 * If he had a Bar Mitzvah. I think that one can safely deduce that he was Jewish. You can read about it in:, a citation that I added to the article. Peaceray (talk) 06:28, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Bad link
The link to Psychology Today points to wiki page describing a new magazine Psychology Today which is claimed to be written for the "mass audience of non-psychologists and tailored for a female readership".

The Psychology today is clearly not a scientific journal. Thus I do not believe that Milgram published in this magazine.

It looks like the journal "Psychology Today" is discontinued. Does any body know when?

Troelspedersen 07:34, 22 May 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Milgram.jpg
Image:Milgram.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot 05:01, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

clarification required
This passage is dicey:

"The contestants were encouraged by the show's host, and by an unprimed studio audience, into giving near fatal electric shocks to another "contestant", on getting memorised word-associations wrong.[8]"

Really? Near fatal electric shocks? Or were they, as with Milgram's experiment, simply led to believe that the shocks were real? That needs to be spelled out, if it's the case, because otherwise the article is making an extremely serious charge. Bacrito (talk) 02:44, 7 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Clarified. (→References in media: Clarifying that "near fatal electric shocks" were a deception to real contestants in Jusqu'où va la télé) Peaceray (talk) 05:59, 14 February 2012 (UTC)

Subway experiment
I don't know all the experiments Milgram did but I know he did one in which researchers asked random people on the Brooklyn subway if they'd give up their seat (without giving an excuse), and most did. It's mentioned at http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/14/nyregion/14subway.html?pagewanted=all&position= I wonder if there are more experiments he did. It would be nice if this article were exhaustive. 184.144.166.80 (talk)

Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View
In this article, the publication date is 1974. Of course there are later editions of the book, but I've also seen ones published in 1963 and 1969 online. Right now I'm not really sure. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.246.160.155 (talk) 16:18, 25 August 2013 (UTC)