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Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist best-remembered for his now infamous obedience experiments. His research demonstrated how far people will go to obey authority. His experiments are also remembered for their ethical issues, which contributed to changes in regulation for experiments performed today. Learn more about his life, legacy, and influence on psychology in this brief biography.
Best Known For
Early Life
Stanley Milgram was born on August 15, 1933, to a family of Jewish immigrants in New York City. Milgram attended James Monroe High School where quickly earned a reputation as a hard worker and a strong leader. He completed high school in just three years. One of his classmates was future social psychologistPhilip Zimbardo.
He earned his bachelor’s in political science from Queens College in 1954. After graduation, his interests shifted to psychology, but he had not taken a single psychology class throughout his undergraduate years. Because of this, he was initially rejected from Harvard University’s graduate program in social relations, but was eventually able to gain admission. He earned his Ph.D. in social psychology in 1960 under the instruction of psychologistGordon Allport.
Career and Famous Obedience Experiments
Contributions to Psychology
The 19 different experiments that Milgram conducted on obedience demonstrated that people were willing to obey an authority figure even if the actions went against their morals. The experiments are well-known today, mentioned in virtually every introductory psychology textbook. While Milgram himself was known for his concern for the well-being of his participants, his work was often harshly criticized for the possible negative emotional impact it had on subjects.
Part of the reason why theAmerican Psychological Associationestablished standards for working with human subjects and why Institutional Review Boards exist today is because of Milgram’s work.
In his 2004 biography, author Thomas Blass noted that social psychology is often dismissed as something that simply proves so-called “common sense.“Through his surprising results, Milgram was able to demonstrate that the things we think we know about ourselves and our behavior in social groups may not necessarily be true. In essence, Milgram was able to shine a light on a subtopic of psychology that some may view as unimportant, but in reality reveals important truths about human behavior.
“A substantial proportion of people do what they are told to do, irrespective of the content of the act, and without pangs of conscience, so long as they perceive that the command comes from a legitimate authority,” Milgram explained of his work.
Milgram’s research on obedience shocked people back during the 1960s, but his findings are just as relevant and stunning to this day. While recent findings have suggested that there may have been problems with his experimental procedures, replications of his work have found that people are surprisingly willing to obey authority figures - even when they know the orders they are following are wrong.
9 Sources
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Milgram S.Behavioral Study of obedience.Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology. 1963;67(4):371–378. doi:10.1037/h0040525
Milgram S.The Individual in a Social World: Essays and Experiments(3rd expanded ed.). London: Pinter & Martin; 1977.
Travers J, Milgram S.An experimental study of the small world problem.Sociometry. 1969;32(4):425-443. doi:10.2307/2786545
Blass, T.The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram.New York: Basic Books; 2004.
Blass T.From New Haven to Santa Clara: A historical perspective on the Milgram obedience experiments.Am Psychol. 2009;64(1):37–45. doi:10.1037/a0014434
Herrera CD.Ethics, deceptions and ‘those Milgram experiments’.J Appl Philos. 2001;18:245-256. doi:10.1111/1468-5930.00192
Haslam N, Loughnan S, Perry G.Meta-Milgram: An empirical synthesis of the obedience experiments.PLoS ONE. 2014;9(4):e93927. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093927
Harvard University.Stanley Milgram (1933-1984).Rogers K.Stanley Milgram.Encyclopaedia Britannica.Updated December 16, 2019.
Harvard University.Stanley Milgram (1933-1984).
Rogers K.Stanley Milgram.Encyclopaedia Britannica.Updated December 16, 2019.
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