Perhaps the experiments of Stanley Milgram explain incidents such as Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Haditha...


Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 – December 20, 1984) was a psychologist at Yale University, Harvard University and the City University of New York. While at Yale, he conducted the small-world experiment (the source of the six degrees of separation concept) and the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority.

Although considered one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, he never took a psychology course as an undergraduate at Queens College, New York, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in political science in 1954. 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. Milgram had a number of significant influences. Among his influences at Harvard were psychologists Solomon Asch and Gordon Allport (Milgram, 1977).

In 1984, Milgram died of a heart attack at the age of 51 in the city of his birth, New York.

In 2004, a biography of Milgram was published under the title The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram, by Thomas Blass.
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Obedience to authority

Main article: Milgram experiment

In 1963, Milgram submitted the results of his Milgram experiments in the article "Behavioral study of obedience". In the ensuing controversy that erupted, the APA held up his application for membership due to questions about the ethics of his work. Ten years later, in 1974, Milgram published Obedience to Authority and was awarded the annual social psychology award by the AAAS (mostly for his work over the social aspects of obedience). He used his models to explain the My Lai massacre (including authority training in the military, depersonalizing the "enemy" through race and cultural differences, etc.).

In 1976, CBS presented a movie about obedience experiments: The Tenth Level with William Shatner as Stephen Hunter, a Milgram-like scientist. Milgram himself was a consultant for the film.

A French political thriller, titled I... comme Icare ("I"...as in Icarus), involves a key scene where Milgram's experiment on obedience to authority is explained and shown.

In 1986, Art Rock musician Peter Gabriel wrote a song called We do what we're told (Milgram's 37), referring to Milgram's obedience experiment.


Small World Phenomenon

Main article: Small world phenomenon

The six degrees of separation concept originates from Milgram's "small world experiment" in 1967 that tracked chains of acquaintances in the US. In the experiment, Milgram sent several packages to random people, asking them to forward the package, by hand, to someone specific.