[ Site Overview | Stanley
Milgram Basics | Important
References ]
[ Milgram's Films | Little
Known Facts about Milgram | About
Dr. Thomas Blass ]
[ Memorable Milgram Quotes | Question
of the Month ]
Question of the Month
June, 2000
Question:
What does the "37" stand for in Peter Gabriel's song, "We do what
we're told-Milgram's 37"?
[ View
the Answer ]
Question of the Month
July, 2000
Question:
Although overshadowed by his obedience studies, Milgram's research
for his doctoral dissertation was also a groundbreaking and highly
ambitious work. He did a cross-cultural comparison of the degree
of conformity to peer pressure shown by subjects from two different
European countries. The work was inspired by Solomon Asch's innovative
line-judgment procedure for studying conformity. Instead of judging
lengths of lines, however, Milgram used judgments of sound duration.
(Milgram had been Asch's research and teaching assistant at Harvard
in 1955-1956. Later, in 1959-60 he worked again for Asch, helping
with a book on conformity that Asch was working on.)
Which were the 2 countries that Milgram compared? And, if you
know the answer to that, tell me which country's participants
conformed more. Those who send me the correct answer(s) will receive
a copy of my chapter, "The Social Psychology of Stanley Milgram,"
which appeared in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology,
1992.
[ View
the Answer ]
There
were no questions for August or September.
Question of the Month
October, 2000
Question:
Milgram's program of research on obedience to authority consisted
of over 20 experimental variations, which were conducted from
August, 1961, through May, 1962. Over a 3-year period, from
1963 to 1965, he published the four journal articles listed
below which described in varying detail about half of the experiments
in his research program. The rest of the experiments were presented
in his book, Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View
(1974), which contained a full description of his research program.
However, strictly speaking, the experiment described in one
of the 4 journal articles was not an obedience experiment.
Which of the following articles described this experiment?
And, in what way was it not an obedience experiment?
a. Behavioral
study of obedience, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
1963.
b. Some conditions of obedience and disobedience
to authority, Human Relations, 1965.
c. Group pressure and action against a person,
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1964.
d. Liberating effects of group pressure, Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 1965.
[ View
the Answer ]
Question of the Month
November/December, 2000
From
September 1970 through November 1971, Milgram, together with Lance
Shotland, conducted eight sequential field experiments on television's
ability to stimulate antisocial behavior in the viewer. Though
conducted about 30 years ago, this research remains unique to
the present day. Milgram was able to get the cooperation of one
of the TV networks (which also funded the study through a grant)
and the writers of a then-popular weekly prime-time TV program
to produce a segment tailored specifically to the needs of Milgram's
experiment. More specifically, three versions of a particular
segment were filmed: two had an antisocial ending-it depicted
a main character stealing money; one had a prosocial ending, with
the same character making a charitable donation. Viewers saw one
of the three versions or a 4th, control, segment and subsequently
were provided with an opportunity to steal money (or in some conditions
carry out another reprehensible act depicted in the antisocial
segments).
Which prime-time TV program did Milgram and Shotland use in
this study?
a. The
Rifleman
b. Medical Center
c. Charlie's Angels
d. The A Team
[ View
the Answer ]
Question
of the Month
January/February, 2001
Among
Milgram's inventive experimental creations was the "Lost Letter
Technique." Devised together with his graduate students, Leon
Mann and Susan Harter, the technique is meant to serve as
an unobtrusive or non-reactive measure of community attitudes.
(A non-reactive measure is one that does not modify or distort
what is being measured or studied.) In the LLT, stamped letters
are "dropped" in various public places-on sidewalks, in phone
booths, etc. The proportion of letters that get mailed by
finders provides a behavioral indicator of attitudes toward
the intended recipient of the letter whose name and P.O. Box
address appear on the letter. Over the years, it has become
the most widely used non-reactive measure of attitudes. Milgram
used the technique on several occasions. One of these was
to predict accurately the outcome of an upcoming Presidential
election. Which Presidential contest was this?
a. Nixon-Kennedy
b. Mondale-Reagan
c. Bush-Dukakis
d. Johnson-Goldwater
e. Humphrey-Nixon
f. Carter-Ford
[ View
the Answer ]
Question
of the Month
March/April, 2001
Although Milgram's obedience experiments were his most famous work, during his lifetime he conducted other interesting, inventive research. All but one of the following refer to, or are connected to these other studies done by Milgram. Which of the following is NOT associated with him?
a. The "small-world" technique
b. The "even-a-penny-helps" technique
c. Urban overload
d. Mental maps
e. Cyranoids
f. The familiar stranger
[ View
the Answer ]
Question
of the Month
May/June, 2001
Question: Identify the source, in Milgram's writings, of the following quote:
Obedience, as determinant of behavior, is of particular relevance to our time. It has been reliably established that from 1933-1945 millions of innocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command. Gas chambers were built, death camps were guarded, daily quotas of corpses were produced with the same efficiency as the manufacture of appliances. These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single person, but they could only be carried out on a massive scale if a very large number of persons obeyed orders.
[ View
the Answer ]
There
were no questions for July through October.
[ View
the Answer ]
Question
of the Month
November/December, 2001
Question: Milgram's obedience experiments revealed something we didn't know before: The unexpectedly high degree of obedience-65% in his first experiment-shown by normal people to destructive orders, even in the absence of coercion. But there is another important finding that sometimes gets overlooked-that the amount of obedience varied as a function of the situation. In fact, across the whole series of over 20 experiments, Milgram found that the proportion of obedient subjects (that is, those who gave the maximum 450 volt shock) ranged from a low of 0% to a high of 92.5%.
Which of the following experimental variations yielded a 0% obedience rate?
a. Two peers (confederates) rebel, leaving the real subject to administer shocks by himself;
b. An ordinary man (rather than the experimenter) gives the orders;
c. The one experiment in which women served as subjects;
d. The experimenter says to stop the shocks, but the learner says he wants to continue;
e. The experimenter gives his orders by phone;
f. The experiment is conducted in an office building in Bridgeport, without any connection to Yale;
g. Rather than having to increase the shock each time the learner made a mistake, the subject could choose any shock level.
There were no questions for January-February 2002. Question
of the Month
March/April,
2002
Question: Published replications of Milgram's obedience experiments have been conducted in a number of countries besides the U.S. Which of the following is NOT one of the countries?
a. Germany
b. Italy
c. Spain
d. Australia
e. Hungary
f. Jordan
g. Austria
[ View
the Answer ]
|