Social psychologists like Muzafer Sherif and Stanley Milgram were committed to recording as much of their experiments as possible. Not just on paper, but with … Read more »
Muzafer Sherif’s right hand man – OJ Harvey
Textbook accounts of Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment put Sherif front and centre of the story. But the stories of famous psychological experiments often ignore … Read more »
PT Barnum meets Stanley Milgram
What have professional showmen like PT Barnum and social psychologists like Stanley Milgram got in common? Plenty, according to Michael Pettit, science historian and author … Read more »
Milgram, Travolta and the Tenth Level
In August 1976, the TV movie The Tenth Level, inspired by Milgram’s obedience research, screened to around 30 million viewers as part of CBS’s Playhouse 90 series. From the opening scene onward, Professor … Read more »
Milgram’s design for book advertising
It took Stanley Milgram over 10 years to write his book about the Obedience to Authority experiments. The writing went very slowly. But he also … Read more »
Behind the Shock Machine and ‘The Experimenter’
My verdict : This film appears to pull off a near impossible feat – making Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments boring. Partly because the film portrays … Read more »
Job vacancy, Yale, 1961: obedience experimenter
Stanley Milgram drafted this ad for a research assistant in mid July 1961. The ad, like all Milgram’s recruitment materials, is cleverly crafted. It’s an … Read more »
Screentest for Obedience, Milgram’s film
You might think watching Milgram’s film Obedience, that you are watching rare ‘through the keyhole’ footage of a live experiment. In fact the film is … Read more »
Milgram on experimentation and insight
When an investigator keeps his eyes open throughout a scientific study he learns things about himself as well as his subjects and the conclusions do … Read more »
Lights, camera – Obedience!
Alfred Hitchcock seems an unlikely inspiration for an instructional film about a psychological experiment. But Stanley Milgram paid close attention to Hitchcock’s horror movies for … Read more »