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The Man Who Shocked The World: The Life And Legacy Of Stanley Milgram
The creator of the famous "Obedience Experiments," carried out at Yale in the 1960s, and originator of the "six degrees of separation" concept, Stanley Milgram was one of the most innovative scientists of our time. In this sparkling biography-the first in-depth portrait of Milgram-Thomas Blass captures the colorful personality and pioneering work of a social psychologist who profoundly altered the way we think about human nature.Born in the Bronx in 1933, Stanley Milgram was the son of Eastern European Jews, and his powerful Obedience Experiments had obvious intellectual roots in the Holocaust. The experiments, which confirmed that "normal" people would readily inflict pain on innocent victims at the behest of an authority figure, generated a firestorm of public interest and outrage-proving, as they did, that moral beliefs were far more malleable than previously thought. But Milgram also explored other aspects of social psychology, from information overload to television violence to the notion that we live in a small world. Although he died suddenly at the height of his career, his work continues to shape the way we live and think today. Blass offers a brilliant portrait of an eccentric visionary scientist who revealed the hidden workings of our very social world.
392 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
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February 18, 2022
So, here’s a biography of one academic social psychologist by another one, and guess what? It’s fascinating! Most of the credit has to go to the subject of this book, Stanley Milgram, whose experiments without question made him the most famous social psychologist to ever trod the halls of academe.
You may never have heard Milgram’s name, but you’ve surely heard about at least two of his most famous experiments. One was the fiendishly clever research project he devised to study the small-world phenomenon, more popularly known as “Six Degrees of Separation.” His experiments yielded empirical evidence for the validity of that theory. However, the other, best known as Milgram’s “obedience experiments” or “pain experiments,” gets the lion’s share of the attention in this biography. It was these laboratory exercises, and especially the Milgram pain experiments, that were the primary sources of the man’s fame—and his notoriety.
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO INFLICT PAIN ON SOMEONE ELSE?
Milgram set out in the early 1960s, barely out of graduate school, to determine the extent to which people picked at random would inflict pain on others simply because they were urged to do so by a credible authority figure. He subjected hundreds of New Haven residents to a laboratory protocol in which a man presented as a professor asked them to administer more and more powerful electric shocks to a person in an adjoining room. Ostensibly, this was to correct his “errors” in answering questions that were part of a learning regimen.
To Milgram’s astonishment and that of his research assistants, staff, and virtually everyone he later shared his findings with, a staggeringly large proportion of otherwise seemingly sane, stable, even “nice” people followed instructions up to a level clearly labeled as dangerous. Less than 20 years after the end of World War II and the insanity of the Nazi era, this revelation was beyond shocking. To most, it was mortifying, because it cast such an unfavorable light on human behavior in every country, not just Germany. And it helped make Stanley Milgram so controversial in his field that he was denied the chance to secure a permanent faculty post at Harvard or Yale, where he trained, or at any other of the country’s most prestigious schools.
SHORT SHRIFT TO THE SMALL-WORLD PHENOMENON
The emphasis author Thomas Blass places on the obedience experiments may well be justified from the perspective of a social psychologist. Milgram’s work in that area remains controversial to this day, alternately vilified and extolled as brilliant, and is still described in virtually every standard text in the field.
Unfortunately, the author gives short shrift to Milgram’s exploration of the small-world phenomenon, which may yet prove to have been far more significant from a broader perspective. The concept of “Six Degrees of Separation” has come to be understood as a fundamental property of all complex networks, from the Internet to atoms in a lattice to human society. Blass mentions this significance it what seems to be an afterthought, and his highly abbreviated description of Milgram’s experimental design is far too cryptic to make much sense.
In fact, Blass (or perhaps his publisher) betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of Milgram’s role in the history of the small-world phenomenon by referring to Milgram in the book’s subtitle as “the Father of Six Degrees.” In fact, the Hungarian short story writer who first advanced the hypothesis in 1929 is no doubt restlessly turning over in his grave at the insult.
AN OUTSTANDING BOOK DESPITE THE FLAWS
The Man Who Shocked the World is fascinating not just because of the profound implications of Stanley Milgram’s work but also because he was such a complex, colorful, and often brilliantly funny man. Interspersed among the descriptions of Milgram’s relationships with his teachers and fellow faculty members, and the lengthy descriptions of so many of his experiments, are excerpts from his extensive correspondence with family and friends. Milgram was an endlessly good-humored writer with an exceedingly non-academic way with words, and Thomas Blass shares just enough of the man’s writerly talents to make this book an outstanding read.
You may never have heard Milgram’s name, but you’ve surely heard about at least two of his most famous experiments. One was the fiendishly clever research project he devised to study the small-world phenomenon, more popularly known as “Six Degrees of Separation.” His experiments yielded empirical evidence for the validity of that theory. However, the other, best known as Milgram’s “obedience experiments” or “pain experiments,” gets the lion’s share of the attention in this biography. It was these laboratory exercises, and especially the Milgram pain experiments, that were the primary sources of the man’s fame—and his notoriety.
WHAT WOULD IT TAKE FOR YOU TO INFLICT PAIN ON SOMEONE ELSE?
Milgram set out in the early 1960s, barely out of graduate school, to determine the extent to which people picked at random would inflict pain on others simply because they were urged to do so by a credible authority figure. He subjected hundreds of New Haven residents to a laboratory protocol in which a man presented as a professor asked them to administer more and more powerful electric shocks to a person in an adjoining room. Ostensibly, this was to correct his “errors” in answering questions that were part of a learning regimen.
To Milgram’s astonishment and that of his research assistants, staff, and virtually everyone he later shared his findings with, a staggeringly large proportion of otherwise seemingly sane, stable, even “nice” people followed instructions up to a level clearly labeled as dangerous. Less than 20 years after the end of World War II and the insanity of the Nazi era, this revelation was beyond shocking. To most, it was mortifying, because it cast such an unfavorable light on human behavior in every country, not just Germany. And it helped make Stanley Milgram so controversial in his field that he was denied the chance to secure a permanent faculty post at Harvard or Yale, where he trained, or at any other of the country’s most prestigious schools.
SHORT SHRIFT TO THE SMALL-WORLD PHENOMENON
The emphasis author Thomas Blass places on the obedience experiments may well be justified from the perspective of a social psychologist. Milgram’s work in that area remains controversial to this day, alternately vilified and extolled as brilliant, and is still described in virtually every standard text in the field.
Unfortunately, the author gives short shrift to Milgram’s exploration of the small-world phenomenon, which may yet prove to have been far more significant from a broader perspective. The concept of “Six Degrees of Separation” has come to be understood as a fundamental property of all complex networks, from the Internet to atoms in a lattice to human society. Blass mentions this significance it what seems to be an afterthought, and his highly abbreviated description of Milgram’s experimental design is far too cryptic to make much sense.
In fact, Blass (or perhaps his publisher) betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of Milgram’s role in the history of the small-world phenomenon by referring to Milgram in the book’s subtitle as “the Father of Six Degrees.” In fact, the Hungarian short story writer who first advanced the hypothesis in 1929 is no doubt restlessly turning over in his grave at the insult.
AN OUTSTANDING BOOK DESPITE THE FLAWS
The Man Who Shocked the World is fascinating not just because of the profound implications of Stanley Milgram’s work but also because he was such a complex, colorful, and often brilliantly funny man. Interspersed among the descriptions of Milgram’s relationships with his teachers and fellow faculty members, and the lengthy descriptions of so many of his experiments, are excerpts from his extensive correspondence with family and friends. Milgram was an endlessly good-humored writer with an exceedingly non-academic way with words, and Thomas Blass shares just enough of the man’s writerly talents to make this book an outstanding read.
November 27, 2015
Milgram was an experimental psychologist who carried out important research into social phenomena including, most famously, obedience to authority, but also the "small world problem," his demonstration that a chain of people on first name terms need normally be only about six people in length to join any two humans. He made many other important contributions to the field, not least by developing the concept of urban psychology.
This biography provides an insight into Milgram's life and work which turns out to have many good qualities. He had limited family resources and relied on public funding and scholarships to continue in education. It is interesting to compare the situation when his wife started in paid employment primarily to help fund their daughter's expensive university education. The real factor making his academic career poossible, however, was the networks he formed with established academics, as teachers, mentors and friends. It is interesting to observe the personal connections that shaped the research interests of key people in the field and this fits very much with the proposition of Randall Collins in The Sociology of Philosophies. For example, the book mentions "... three former teachers who had been his mentors and with whom he had continued a relationship of mutual fondness and respect: Gordon Allport, Roger Brown and Jerome Bruner." [p146] Solomon Asch was also important. In 1966, Milgram was having the greatest difficulty securing a position anywhere when his friend and former Yale colleague, Howard Leventhal, was recruited to the newly formed City University of New York and insisted that he would only accept on condition that Milgram was also offered a secure post there. [p156] For anyone considering an academic career, this lesson cannot be over emphasized.
One problem for Milgram was the prejudices and strong feelings provoked by his work on obedience. Roger Brown believed "... that some people "attributed to [Milgram] some of the properties of his experiment. That is, they thought he was sort of manipulative, or the mad doctor or something of this sort...They felt uneasy about him." [p153] But he also encountered the criticsm that his work lacked a clear, theoretical basis. For example: "There is no clearly identifiable Milgram school of social psychology... This lack of continuity is due to Milgram's approach. It was phenomenon oriented rather than theory based. As one writer noted: "Most psychologists test hypotheses, Milgram asks questions." The majority of Milgram's studies were driven by his curiosity, his quest to verify the existence of a phenomenon or regularity in behaviour suggested by subjective experience, and once established, to identify the forces that led to variations in the observed phenomena. ..But progress in science depends, at least partially, on cumulative research - that is, experiments aimed at testing one of a number of hypotheses derived from a theory... phenomenon-centred research is not cumulative. Once you have verified the existence of some behavioural regularity, and perhaps identified its boundaries, there is nowhere else to go." [p291]
The book indicates many times that Milgram was not the best theorist for even his own research findings, and his proposals were at times open to question. That was not his gift. What he did have was a marvellous ability to design good experiments and this helped to establish the still new field of social psychology as a credible scientific endeavour. e.g. "While the content of Milgram's research interests defies pigeonholing, virtually all of his studies share an important stylistic characteristic. The object of study - the dependent variable - was typically some form of concrete, observable behaviour; be it picking up a "lost letter" or giving up one's seat on a subway train. As he told an interviewer: "Only in action can you fully realize the forces operative in social behaviour. That is why I am an experimentalist." "[p192] Also: "The creative claim of social psychology lies in its capacity to reconstruct varied types of social experience in an experimental format, to clarify and make visible the operation of obscure social forces so that they may be explored in terms of the language of cause and effect." (Milgram in 1977) [p228]
Again, anyone interested in studying psychology academically needs to appreciate the importance of being able to design and implement good experiments. But what the book also illustrates is the need to cope with considerable stress, in order to conduct research with human subjects. In the obedience studies, it is evident that many participants were very agitated by the experience, something requiring skill from the experimenter. But also, in other experiments such as asking passengers on a train to give up their seats, the stress for the experimenter was also hard to tolerate. That reflects our natural reluctance to break social rules and is very hard to overcome. So anyone who thinks they have what it takes to be an experimental psychologist, beware.
Milgram's research was arguably most driven by simple curiosity: "I believe that a Pandora's box lies just below the surface of everyday life, so it is often worthwhile to challenge what you most take for granted. You are often surprised at what you find." Milgram. [292] What he found was, of course, hugely important and the final chapters of this book provide a useful review of some of the ways in which Milgram's work has been influential, leaving a legacy that is highly regarded.
Milgram was not greatly honoured in his day, probably because he was seen as contentious, yet it is arguable that his research has done more than any other to demonstrate the social relevance and importance of the work done in experimental psychology. I do not want to promote the idea that being useful is all that matters, but it does obviously matter all the same. He is a fascinating character, his work was extraordinary and this book does it justice.
Some more quotes:
"The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson; often, it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act." (Milgram) [p101]
"When an individual wishes to stand in opposition to authority, he does best to find support for his position from others in his group. The mutual support provided by men for each other is the strongest bulwark we have against the excesses of authority." (Milgram) [p108]
In 1964, Milgram and Paul Hollander co-authored a piece for The Nation about Kitty Genovese, who was was killed on March 13, 1964 as she was going home from work. Her killer stabbed her repeatedly for half an hour, during which a journalist later established that 38 of her neighbours either witnessed part of the attack or heard her cries for help without acting to help or call for help. "The article brought a refreshing rational and non judgemental approach to a tragic event in which outrage tended to blur the public's perspective." [p168]
"I started work on obedience in 1960, a long time ago, and it would be nice to move on... But professional life turns you into a kind of snail, in which everything you do becomes another curl of your ever enlarging carapace." (Milgram, letter, 1976) [p232]
"Without a well developed capacity for obedience, society could not function. Yet under the sway of obedient dispositions, morality vanishes."(Milgram 1967) [p279]
"The implicit model for [my] experimental work is that of the person influenced by social forces while often believing in his or her own independence of them. It is thus a social psychology of the reactive individual, the recipient of forces and pressures emanating from outside oneself. This represents, of course, only one side of the coin of social life, for we as individuals also initiative action out of internal needs and actively construct the social world we inhabit. But I have left to other investigators the task of examining the complementary side of our social natures." Milgram [p290]
This biography provides an insight into Milgram's life and work which turns out to have many good qualities. He had limited family resources and relied on public funding and scholarships to continue in education. It is interesting to compare the situation when his wife started in paid employment primarily to help fund their daughter's expensive university education. The real factor making his academic career poossible, however, was the networks he formed with established academics, as teachers, mentors and friends. It is interesting to observe the personal connections that shaped the research interests of key people in the field and this fits very much with the proposition of Randall Collins in The Sociology of Philosophies. For example, the book mentions "... three former teachers who had been his mentors and with whom he had continued a relationship of mutual fondness and respect: Gordon Allport, Roger Brown and Jerome Bruner." [p146] Solomon Asch was also important. In 1966, Milgram was having the greatest difficulty securing a position anywhere when his friend and former Yale colleague, Howard Leventhal, was recruited to the newly formed City University of New York and insisted that he would only accept on condition that Milgram was also offered a secure post there. [p156] For anyone considering an academic career, this lesson cannot be over emphasized.
One problem for Milgram was the prejudices and strong feelings provoked by his work on obedience. Roger Brown believed "... that some people "attributed to [Milgram] some of the properties of his experiment. That is, they thought he was sort of manipulative, or the mad doctor or something of this sort...They felt uneasy about him." [p153] But he also encountered the criticsm that his work lacked a clear, theoretical basis. For example: "There is no clearly identifiable Milgram school of social psychology... This lack of continuity is due to Milgram's approach. It was phenomenon oriented rather than theory based. As one writer noted: "Most psychologists test hypotheses, Milgram asks questions." The majority of Milgram's studies were driven by his curiosity, his quest to verify the existence of a phenomenon or regularity in behaviour suggested by subjective experience, and once established, to identify the forces that led to variations in the observed phenomena. ..But progress in science depends, at least partially, on cumulative research - that is, experiments aimed at testing one of a number of hypotheses derived from a theory... phenomenon-centred research is not cumulative. Once you have verified the existence of some behavioural regularity, and perhaps identified its boundaries, there is nowhere else to go." [p291]
The book indicates many times that Milgram was not the best theorist for even his own research findings, and his proposals were at times open to question. That was not his gift. What he did have was a marvellous ability to design good experiments and this helped to establish the still new field of social psychology as a credible scientific endeavour. e.g. "While the content of Milgram's research interests defies pigeonholing, virtually all of his studies share an important stylistic characteristic. The object of study - the dependent variable - was typically some form of concrete, observable behaviour; be it picking up a "lost letter" or giving up one's seat on a subway train. As he told an interviewer: "Only in action can you fully realize the forces operative in social behaviour. That is why I am an experimentalist." "[p192] Also: "The creative claim of social psychology lies in its capacity to reconstruct varied types of social experience in an experimental format, to clarify and make visible the operation of obscure social forces so that they may be explored in terms of the language of cause and effect." (Milgram in 1977) [p228]
Again, anyone interested in studying psychology academically needs to appreciate the importance of being able to design and implement good experiments. But what the book also illustrates is the need to cope with considerable stress, in order to conduct research with human subjects. In the obedience studies, it is evident that many participants were very agitated by the experience, something requiring skill from the experimenter. But also, in other experiments such as asking passengers on a train to give up their seats, the stress for the experimenter was also hard to tolerate. That reflects our natural reluctance to break social rules and is very hard to overcome. So anyone who thinks they have what it takes to be an experimental psychologist, beware.
Milgram's research was arguably most driven by simple curiosity: "I believe that a Pandora's box lies just below the surface of everyday life, so it is often worthwhile to challenge what you most take for granted. You are often surprised at what you find." Milgram. [292] What he found was, of course, hugely important and the final chapters of this book provide a useful review of some of the ways in which Milgram's work has been influential, leaving a legacy that is highly regarded.
Milgram was not greatly honoured in his day, probably because he was seen as contentious, yet it is arguable that his research has done more than any other to demonstrate the social relevance and importance of the work done in experimental psychology. I do not want to promote the idea that being useful is all that matters, but it does obviously matter all the same. He is a fascinating character, his work was extraordinary and this book does it justice.
Some more quotes:
"The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson; often, it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act." (Milgram) [p101]
"When an individual wishes to stand in opposition to authority, he does best to find support for his position from others in his group. The mutual support provided by men for each other is the strongest bulwark we have against the excesses of authority." (Milgram) [p108]
In 1964, Milgram and Paul Hollander co-authored a piece for The Nation about Kitty Genovese, who was was killed on March 13, 1964 as she was going home from work. Her killer stabbed her repeatedly for half an hour, during which a journalist later established that 38 of her neighbours either witnessed part of the attack or heard her cries for help without acting to help or call for help. "The article brought a refreshing rational and non judgemental approach to a tragic event in which outrage tended to blur the public's perspective." [p168]
"I started work on obedience in 1960, a long time ago, and it would be nice to move on... But professional life turns you into a kind of snail, in which everything you do becomes another curl of your ever enlarging carapace." (Milgram, letter, 1976) [p232]
"Without a well developed capacity for obedience, society could not function. Yet under the sway of obedient dispositions, morality vanishes."(Milgram 1967) [p279]
"The implicit model for [my] experimental work is that of the person influenced by social forces while often believing in his or her own independence of them. It is thus a social psychology of the reactive individual, the recipient of forces and pressures emanating from outside oneself. This represents, of course, only one side of the coin of social life, for we as individuals also initiative action out of internal needs and actively construct the social world we inhabit. But I have left to other investigators the task of examining the complementary side of our social natures." Milgram [p290]
May 14, 2023
While he spawned no “school” or philosophy, Stanley Milgram may be the most famous pioneer in the field of social psychology. Thomas Blass looks at his career of ups and downs and very abrupt end with a heart attack at age 51.
Milgram’s fame stems from his “obedience” experiments in the early 1960's where his methodology was attacked for “deception”, that is, telling the participants that the study was about learning when it was about obedience to authority.
The attacks seem petty given the many experimental medical deceptions such as the widely publicized (1960/61) thalidomide prescriptions where pregnant women were unwittingly given an untested pill the result of which was horrendously deformed babies. When the highly and clearly unethical Tuskegee syphilis study was revealed in 1972 (over 100 deaths), it was still Milgram still who took the heat for deception studies.
Was it the out of proportion controversy or was it other academic issues (or jealousies) that resulted in the denial of Milgram’s tenure at Harvard in 1967? While Blass shows what a personal blow this was to Milgram, he certainly flourished in his new home at the City University of New York. Here he branched out into studying urban life such as his “six degrees of separation" validation, perceptual map studies of NYC and Paris assessments and various aspects of the social interactions of strangers in publoic settings. He worked on early studies of the impact of television on aggression.
You see the Type A behavior that resulted in his young death. He has a record number of graduate advisees, he is always applying for grants, he is meticulously involved in his experiments, he writes against deadlines for books and articles he travels across the country and world to deliver lectures. He is not just a film aficionado; he is a director, fund raiser, script writer and participant in creating films.
He was a family man and made time for his wife, son and daughter.
Once you have digested the breathtaking life of Milgram, the last chapter is an excellent assessment of his legacy. His research was diverse honing in on basic behaviors such as how urbanites relate, how they respond and not respond to familiar faces, how they react when bumped into or asked for a seat on a train or if they related more to their neighborhood or the landmarks of their city. Methodologies were always appropriate and meticulous.
By fame (not by the impact of the deception in his studies, which is very low) Milgram is often cited as the reason for legislation regarding deception in research. Blass says that Milgram's studies meet current legal standards but replication is unlikely. Institutions are required to have a committee for approval for research on this scale to go forward. If they pass these committees then the funders have to approve. The strange stigma surrounding the Milgram studies makes other research topics more appealing.
I would like to see the studies replicated with follow up on the subjects who shocked the "learners" at the highest levels and those who bowed out early. What are the personality or background differences within the groups?
This book is readable and meaty. I highly recommend it for those interested in this topic.
Milgram’s fame stems from his “obedience” experiments in the early 1960's where his methodology was attacked for “deception”, that is, telling the participants that the study was about learning when it was about obedience to authority.
The attacks seem petty given the many experimental medical deceptions such as the widely publicized (1960/61) thalidomide prescriptions where pregnant women were unwittingly given an untested pill the result of which was horrendously deformed babies. When the highly and clearly unethical Tuskegee syphilis study was revealed in 1972 (over 100 deaths), it was still Milgram still who took the heat for deception studies.
Was it the out of proportion controversy or was it other academic issues (or jealousies) that resulted in the denial of Milgram’s tenure at Harvard in 1967? While Blass shows what a personal blow this was to Milgram, he certainly flourished in his new home at the City University of New York. Here he branched out into studying urban life such as his “six degrees of separation" validation, perceptual map studies of NYC and Paris assessments and various aspects of the social interactions of strangers in publoic settings. He worked on early studies of the impact of television on aggression.
You see the Type A behavior that resulted in his young death. He has a record number of graduate advisees, he is always applying for grants, he is meticulously involved in his experiments, he writes against deadlines for books and articles he travels across the country and world to deliver lectures. He is not just a film aficionado; he is a director, fund raiser, script writer and participant in creating films.
He was a family man and made time for his wife, son and daughter.
Once you have digested the breathtaking life of Milgram, the last chapter is an excellent assessment of his legacy. His research was diverse honing in on basic behaviors such as how urbanites relate, how they respond and not respond to familiar faces, how they react when bumped into or asked for a seat on a train or if they related more to their neighborhood or the landmarks of their city. Methodologies were always appropriate and meticulous.
By fame (not by the impact of the deception in his studies, which is very low) Milgram is often cited as the reason for legislation regarding deception in research. Blass says that Milgram's studies meet current legal standards but replication is unlikely. Institutions are required to have a committee for approval for research on this scale to go forward. If they pass these committees then the funders have to approve. The strange stigma surrounding the Milgram studies makes other research topics more appealing.
I would like to see the studies replicated with follow up on the subjects who shocked the "learners" at the highest levels and those who bowed out early. What are the personality or background differences within the groups?
This book is readable and meaty. I highly recommend it for those interested in this topic.
September 16, 2017
The first time i saw Milgram's experiment of shocking machine was from Through the wormhole, i was actually quite shocked to learn that 2/3 of people would actually hang in there till the end even though they dislike to see others suffer. then I watched the movie " the experimenter" without remembering that was actually talking about Milgarm's story. i thought similar experiments were repeated several times. But now reading this book, all the connection came back.
noted that during the shock experiment, combined with voice-feedback condition (62.5%), proximity condition (40%), and touch-proximity condition(30%) still used the maximum shock 450 watt, just because they were told to. After the experiment, they filled up the survey after 6 to 11 weeks, 65% of those who obeyed the shock didn't feel bother and annoyed by this experiment. 62.7% who fought and argued back at that time didn't feel bother and annoyed by this experiment. What does that mean?
We don't seem to be that angel and nice as we thought we should be. Other's suffering remains other's pain.
Other contribution of Milgram is Small world experiment, which led to 6 degree separation theory.
While i read this biography, i think someone like him still haunted by his own ghost, his ego still trapped him to consider being able the professor of Harvard would made his a successful person, other than that, he failed. Many men got his own haunted side, and this complicated part of inner self makes us so different and charming, but no one can share their suffering and insist except themselves.
He lived such short life, 51 ys. Life is really not measured by how long you live, but how fulfilled you live. We are all the passenger of time, some got remembered, mostly don't. At least, we write our own scripts, make ourselves shine!
noted that during the shock experiment, combined with voice-feedback condition (62.5%), proximity condition (40%), and touch-proximity condition(30%) still used the maximum shock 450 watt, just because they were told to. After the experiment, they filled up the survey after 6 to 11 weeks, 65% of those who obeyed the shock didn't feel bother and annoyed by this experiment. 62.7% who fought and argued back at that time didn't feel bother and annoyed by this experiment. What does that mean?
We don't seem to be that angel and nice as we thought we should be. Other's suffering remains other's pain.
Other contribution of Milgram is Small world experiment, which led to 6 degree separation theory.
While i read this biography, i think someone like him still haunted by his own ghost, his ego still trapped him to consider being able the professor of Harvard would made his a successful person, other than that, he failed. Many men got his own haunted side, and this complicated part of inner self makes us so different and charming, but no one can share their suffering and insist except themselves.
He lived such short life, 51 ys. Life is really not measured by how long you live, but how fulfilled you live. We are all the passenger of time, some got remembered, mostly don't. At least, we write our own scripts, make ourselves shine!
August 21, 2017
Good read about an interesting character.
June 8, 2019
An informative enjoyable biography
July 23, 2025
Read for a research essay about obedience to authority ended up enjoying the book and finding it very interesting!
May 25, 2012
“The Man Who Shocked The World:” An Engaging Biography of Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) was a social psychologist whose research has had a far-reaching influence on both psychology and on the view of social psychological research at large. If you’ve taken a general psychology or social psychology course, you may remember him as “The Obedience Guy” or “The Shock Guy” as Milgram designed research studies to test the ordinary person’s level of obedience to an authority figure when the authority asked the person to administer shocks in the name of research of learning. What you may not know (or remember) is that Milgram did those studies very early in his career, and went on to do other things (and to influence views regarding deception in research). Blass (2004) discusses all of these things in a very engaging way that whisks the reader along Milgram’s life and times (in true social psychological fashion – always think about the social factors that may influence behavior).
Blass covers Milgram’s life from birth to the day of his death, and includes a description of studies that his work influenced even after his death. His descriptions of Milgram’s life, personality, and thoughts are peppered with direct quotes from letters written by Milgram and from interviews with those who knew Milgram and studied under him. What emerged was the picture of a creative man who was interested in not simply obedience, but the world – his curiosity pushed him to study cross-cultural phenomena as well as research methods in social psychology such as the “lost letter technique” (where stamped/addressed letters are left in public and public views of certain events/topics are gauged by how many letters regarding that topic actually are mailed by those who find them).
Readers who are interested in the history of psychology, the personality behind the researchers in psychology, and the historical influences on the individuals who become “famous” psychologists will be interested in Blass’ detailed descriptions of Milgram’s life and experiences. Those who are only interested in learning more about the obedience experiments may not like this book, and would probably enjoy reading Milgram’s own “Obedience to Authority” text than this book.
Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) was a social psychologist whose research has had a far-reaching influence on both psychology and on the view of social psychological research at large. If you’ve taken a general psychology or social psychology course, you may remember him as “The Obedience Guy” or “The Shock Guy” as Milgram designed research studies to test the ordinary person’s level of obedience to an authority figure when the authority asked the person to administer shocks in the name of research of learning. What you may not know (or remember) is that Milgram did those studies very early in his career, and went on to do other things (and to influence views regarding deception in research). Blass (2004) discusses all of these things in a very engaging way that whisks the reader along Milgram’s life and times (in true social psychological fashion – always think about the social factors that may influence behavior).
Blass covers Milgram’s life from birth to the day of his death, and includes a description of studies that his work influenced even after his death. His descriptions of Milgram’s life, personality, and thoughts are peppered with direct quotes from letters written by Milgram and from interviews with those who knew Milgram and studied under him. What emerged was the picture of a creative man who was interested in not simply obedience, but the world – his curiosity pushed him to study cross-cultural phenomena as well as research methods in social psychology such as the “lost letter technique” (where stamped/addressed letters are left in public and public views of certain events/topics are gauged by how many letters regarding that topic actually are mailed by those who find them).
Readers who are interested in the history of psychology, the personality behind the researchers in psychology, and the historical influences on the individuals who become “famous” psychologists will be interested in Blass’ detailed descriptions of Milgram’s life and experiences. Those who are only interested in learning more about the obedience experiments may not like this book, and would probably enjoy reading Milgram’s own “Obedience to Authority” text than this book.
April 20, 2014
I was fortunate enough to get the chance to talk to Dr. Blass a few years ago at an American Psychological Association Conference. I just happened to catch him as he was talking to one of the distributors of this book, and the three of us spoke about this book, the study, about society, etc... for almost an hour. It was one of the highlights of the conference. That being said, what I think this book does for both the professional and lay people alike is give us a greater understanding of what Milgram's study should be telling all of us. I'll admit it, I'm biased my undergrad is in Social Psychology, so I've reviewed Milgram's study at length including seeing the video footage.
Dr. Blass is a quintessential expert in this area in my opinion, and this book does a great job of detailing the life of Milgram, the reasons for the experiment (social and personal), how it was done, why it was important then and now. In the course of current events, especially those surrounding privacy, the military, and unexpected human behavior I frequently quote Milgram's study and feel that we as a society should have a greater appreciation for events, behaviors, or our own views given our own exposure to authority or even the appearance of authority. We talk about the death penalty. I live in Texas which executes more prisoners than almost all other states annually, but how many of us out there could knowingly push the button?
As I said the book is well written, funny in parts, while it does describe Milgram and his work in detail, I do not believe to be at an overly complex reading level, thus Dr. Blass is able to bring this out to the masses. I know I've seen this book assigned as a reading material for an Intro to Psychology classes in the past.
Dr. Blass is a quintessential expert in this area in my opinion, and this book does a great job of detailing the life of Milgram, the reasons for the experiment (social and personal), how it was done, why it was important then and now. In the course of current events, especially those surrounding privacy, the military, and unexpected human behavior I frequently quote Milgram's study and feel that we as a society should have a greater appreciation for events, behaviors, or our own views given our own exposure to authority or even the appearance of authority. We talk about the death penalty. I live in Texas which executes more prisoners than almost all other states annually, but how many of us out there could knowingly push the button?
As I said the book is well written, funny in parts, while it does describe Milgram and his work in detail, I do not believe to be at an overly complex reading level, thus Dr. Blass is able to bring this out to the masses. I know I've seen this book assigned as a reading material for an Intro to Psychology classes in the past.
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April 19, 2010this book is a book that helped me with my research paper that talked about Stanley Milgram and his experiment. it talked about how his experiment consisted of a "teacher" and a "learner" where the actual experiment was the "teacher". this book showed me how people would react while under an authority figure and what they will do while under this authority figure. the shocking thing about it is that the people, still knowing they will conflict pain on the other person still went on to continue the experiment. this book shows that he was influenced by the holocaust and that it was the reason to him starting this experiment.
July 17, 2012
Decent bio on a significant figure in 20th century pop culture. The book spends a great deal of time on Milgram's obedience experiment and the fallout in its wake. So much so I actually wished for a little more detail on Milgram's life.
The book wraps up with a very nice conclusion which lists instances of the holocaust in vivid, cruel detail. In spite of this Milgram advises to not instantiate explanations for obedience to authority in the Nazi age based upon his research, which obviously folks are prone to do. But the thoughts of this are unavoidable.
Milgram was a very interesting man, and I was glad to have read this book to have found out more about his work.
October 15, 2010
Stanley Milgram is a great man and psychologist. He contributed so much to our society, I didn't even realize it until I read the book. I like how the book portrayed him as a family man rather than just a work-a-holic. It made me appreciate Milgram for the man he was, not just the psychologist the rest of the world is familiar with. Even though he was a good man, he was still human. And I appreciate how the author showed that side of him too. The author did a good job trying to chronicle all his accomplishments.
April 22, 2013
This book was just not my thing. I got it because I thought it sounded interesting, though I admit I was hoping for more of a focus on Milgram's work and its relevance/effects/legacy in the years since he did his experiments, and less digging into the minutiae of his life. The level of detail in this biography was just a bit too much for my taste, and so the book really dragged for me. There's a lot of information in here, and it seems to certainly be well-researched, so maybe it'll be someone else's cup of tea, but it was really a slog for me to get through it.
August 24, 2013
The book discuseses the life and work of Stanley Milgram.Milgram is a social psychologist and he excelled in this field!! The milgram experiment is a revolutionary one . It showed that people might obey their leaders blindly and that pretty much explains the atrocities done in the name of obedience of leaders. The book didn't impress me that much. This might be because I read and actually watched many of other Milgram's works but he's definitely a man who has an ample mastery over social psychology
December 1, 2014
I really liked this book; it was incredibly interesting reading his perspectives and theories of how people can be so easily led by authority. Adding in the autobiographical details of his life only served to make it more engaging. A fascinating read.
December 13, 2008
His experiments on obedience are considering the paradigmatic examples of unethical psychological experiments, yet this book shows the bum rap he got and much more. The picture of him and a graduate student hours before Milgram died haunts me.
April 15, 2016
Good Milgram history, but most interesting part was leading up to the Obedience experiment. I liked that he is also connected to six degrees of separation and lost letter experiments, but personal life stuff was not super-interesting.
September 16, 2010
This is a really interesting biography, and it familiarizes one with both Milgram's pioneering work, and the person behind it.
July 1, 2009
It was ok, but I couldn't really get involved with it. The descriptions of the experiments were interesting, but I like to know more in-depth personal stuff, too.
November 27, 2010
Story of Stanley Milgram and his obedience experiences and origins of six degrees of separation.
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July 28, 2011Although I loved reading about all the creative experiments Milgram worked on, I found the biographical parts of the novel fairly dull.
December 12, 2012
This was my Social Psychology professor!
July 22, 2013
Thorough and surprisingly readable biography of the scientist and the man behind the (in)famous obedience experiments and six degrees theory.
June 9, 2017
I first heard of Milgram and the obedience experiment in college. I am glad to read about his life and other projects on social psychology. It was very interesting.
March 23, 2017
Too much personal life, not enough original source material (e.g. Journal entries) or insight into how he came up with his experiments
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