Stanley Milgram .com. People are talking about “The Man Who Shocked the World”! The purpose of this website is to be a source of accurate information about the life and work of one of the most outstanding social scientists of our time, the social psychologist Stanley Milgram. His untimely death at the age of 51 on December 20, 1984, ended a life of scientific inventiveness and controversy. But his research and writings continue to influence contemporary culture and thought. See the Bookshelf section, which is now stocked with over 100, amazingly diverse Milgram -related titles! Each book is linked to its page on Amazon.com Some of my Milgram-related writings can now be downloaded (pdf) See newly-discovered photos throughout the website Enjoy! Thomas Blass, Ph.D. Stanley Milgram: Obedience to Authority Or Just Conformity? What psychological experiment could be so powerful that simply taking part might change your view of yourself and human nature?
What experimental procedure could provoke some people to profuse sweating and trembling, leaving 10% extremely upset, while others broke into unexplained hysterical laughter? What finding could be so powerful that it sent many psychologists into frenzied rebuttals? Welcome to the sixth nomination for the top ten psychology studies and as you’ll have guessed it’s a big one. Hold on for controversy though, as this study has come in for considerable criticism with some saying its claims are wildly overblown. Explaining human cruelty “Many wondered after the horrors of WWII, and not for the first time, how people could be motivated to commit acts of such brutality towards each other.”Stanley Milgram’s now famous experiments were designed to test obedience to authority (Milgram, 1963).
Results How can these results be explained? At the time Milgram’s study was big news. Lessons from Jonestown. In the middle of the jungle in Guyana, South America, nearly 1,000 people drank lethal cyanide punch or were shot to death, following the orders of their leader, Jim Jones. Mothers and fathers gave the deadly drink to their children and then drank it themselves. People screamed. Bodies trembled. And within a few minutes on Nov. 18, 1978, 912 people were dead. Jones' followers originally came to the Guyanese community, known as Jonestown, seeking paradise and an escape from racism and persecution in the United States. Twenty-five years later, social psychologists continue to examine how Jones came to command such enormous influence over his followers' thoughts and actions.
Most disturbingly, perhaps, leaders such as Jones appear to have derived some of their techniques from social psychologists' research, raising questions about research ethics and the future direction of cult research, says Philip G. The mastermind "Big brother is watching you. " Mindless compliance Building awareness. Intro to Cults 101. Reading List - Books About Cults.