Stanley Milgram

Stanley Milgram ( born August 15, 1933, New York City; † December 20, 1984 ) was an American psychologist.

Life

Stanley Milgram was born on August 15, 1933 in New York City. In 1950 he made along with his school friend Philip Zimbardo at James Moroe High School his high school graduation. Four years later he received the bachelor's degree at Queens College. Earned his doctorate under Gordon Allport Milgram at Harvard University. Subsequently, he was Associate Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Milgram died in 1984 at the age of 51 of a heart attack. He left behind his wife and two children.

Work

Obedience to authority

Stanley Milgram was known for his work on obedience to authority. In its now called the Milgram experiment experiments, he showed that the majority of average people can be moved by alleged authorities to systematically mistreat other people (in this case due to power surges ).

His work is considered particularly important to understand how far can inconspicuous people commit atrocities. But it also provoked opposition because they implied that a majority of people is potentially cruel. Representatives of ideologies that posit the " good in people ", were particularly affected.

Milgram calls for a better understanding of his work some key requirements of the behavior of people under authoritarian influence, because

Obedience is therefore a normal process that shapes societies. Restrictive one must ask, however, how far obedience in certain situations is still appropriate. This is where Milgram to study. The results of the Milgram experiment are covered as well and could be reproduced in numerous follow-up experiments.

The small-world phenomenon

Milgram coined by another experiment, in which he made, inter alia, the post used for purposes of social research, the concept of small-world phenomenon ( small world phenomenon ).

Before he could investigate the small-world phenomenon, Milgram developed in 1960, the so-called "lost letter technique". This non- reactive method is used to explore the setting of a population in a given test area without reflected social influences such as the expected social desirability in the responses to the survey, as in conventional methods. These letters addressed fully franked and were left in the test area and gave the impression to have been lost served. They were (in addition to individuals) addressed to people who recognized a group or institution belonged to, such as a medical research facility, the Communist Party, or the Nazis. From the number of letters that helpful and forwarded the residents at the address, so cast about in the mailbox of the experimenter unlocked the attitude of the population to the groupings.

Urban Overload Hypothesis

According to Milgram's observation of people suffer in large cities on sensory overload, against which they cut themselves off by social withdrawal. This will interpersonal relationships superficial, the frequency decreases prosocial behavior, etc., see Urban Overload Hypothesis.

Publications (selection)

• Conformity in Norway and France: An experimental study of national characteristics. Harvard University, 1960. (Dissertation)
• The Small World Problem. In: Psychology Today May 1967, p 60-67
• The individual in a social world. Essays and Experiments. Third, expanded edition, Pinter & Martin, 2010 ISBN 978-1-905177-12-7.
• The Milgram experiment. To willingness to obey to authority ( original title: Obedience to Authority, translated by Roland Fleissner ). 17th edition, rororo proper book 17479, Reinbek 1995 ( German edition 1982), ISBN 978-3-499-17479-7.