Your chance to win a book!
Each month you will have a chance to win a copy of my biography of Milgram, The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram (Basic Books). If you enter the correct answer to the current question, your name will be entered into a drawing for the book at the end of the month. Due to technical limitations, answers cannot be entered into the drawing before they are sent to me!
.jpg)
Question of the Month Archive
August, 2008
The experience of stress is often associated with Milgram's obedience experiments. But stress was often experienced in another program of research by Milgram. Which of the following among Milgram's other studies was also often a stressful experience?
a. Cyranoids
b. A field experiment in the subway
c. The small world problem
d. Mental maps of cities
e. The familiar stranger
f. The lost-letter technique
July, 2008
Milgram conducted over 20 different experiments or conditions in his obedience series, each representing some variation of his basic experimental format. Which of the following variations did he not do?
a. The subject (teacher) had to shock the learner for each mistake, but could choose the shock level on each trial.
b. The subject had to administer shocks to himself rather than another person.
c. Female subjects (teachers) giving shocks to a male learner.
d. The experimenter leaves the laboratory and continues giving orders by telephone.
e. The experimenter commands a 3-person teaching-team, consisting of 2 confederates and one real subject, with the confederates always following the experimenter's orders.
June, 2008
Which of the following films or videos depicted the obedience experiment, either by incorporating portions of Milgram's black-and-white "Obedience" documentary or in dramatized form?
- The Human Behavior Experiments
- I Comme Icare (I as in Icarus)
- Ghosts of Abu Ghraib
- Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
a. 1 and 2
b. 3 and 4
c. 1, 2, and 4
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
May, 2008
In 1997, Steven Stern and Jon Faber invented the "lost e-mail method," adapting Milgram's lost-letter technique to the age of the Internet. More recently, two other researchers, Brad Bushman and Angelica Bonacci, used it effectively
a. To study the nature of social networks.
b. As an unobtrusive measure of honesty.
c. To study the social psychology of photography.
d. To determine the demographic characteristics of the typical e-mail user.
e. As an unobtrusive measure of ethnic prejudice and discrimination.
April, 2008
In an experiment "The drawing power of crowds of different size," Milgram and his students created "stimulus" groups of increasing size whose members__________, to see if the tendency for others to imitate this behavior would increase as the "stimulus" groups got bigger.
a. stood on a sidewalk and looked up at a window of an office building across the street
b. would jaywalk (cross the street in the middle of the block, rather than at the traffic light)
c. stopped to watch a staged fist fight between 2 young men
d. were putting coins into the cup of a begging panhandler
March, 2008
Milgram's obedience experiments, together with a handful of other ethically problematic research studies, are often described as being responsible for leading the U.S. government to create regulations to protect the well-being of human research subjects. Which of the following ethically controversial studies, carried out in Sweden, is NOT typically included among the handful of studies?
a. A study in which jury deliberations were secretly tape-recorded without the jurors' knowledge or consent.
b. In a study of tooth decay, patients in a mental hospital were fed a diet of sweet and sticky candy, resulting in completely ruined teeth among some of them.
c. A study of homosexual encounters in public restrooms
d. To study the natural progression of syphilis, a group of 400 men with the disease were left untreated for decades.
e. A study in which elderly, frail patients were injected with cancer cells without their consent
February, 2008
Among the studies Milgram conducted was the "lost-letter technique" about a year after his completion of the obedience research. One can ask: "Why would the same person who gave us such a highly important study then turn his attention to such a light-weight one as the 'lost-letter technique'?" One answer is that, despite superficial differences, there was an underlying similarity between the two studies — a hallmark of most of Milgram's research. They were similar in that both:
a. A shift in responsibility from the individual to the commanding authority
b. In both cases, the person was saddled with a conflict
c. A strong belief in the expertise of the authority
d. Our pervasive need to belong
January, 2008
Besides his attempt to fathom the Holocaust, Milgram's obedience experiments grew out of:
a. His observation of the pervasiveness of obedience in American society
b. His experiences in a number of European cities he visited
c. His contact with Solomon Asch and his conformity research
d. His determination to teach resistance to unwanted pressure from authority
December, 2007
Milgram conducted research, and published, on the mental maps or subjective geography of the residents of two cities. These were:
a. London and Amsterdam
b. Budapest and Vienna
c. Tokyo and Taipei (in Taiwan)
d. New York and Paris
November, 2007
Among the studies Milgram conducted was the "lost-letter technique" about a year after his completion of the obedience research. One can ask: "Why would the same person who gave us such a highly important study then turn his attention to such a light-weight one as the 'lost-letter technique'?" One answer is that, despite superficial differences, there was an underlying similarity between the two studies—a hallmark of most of Milgram's research. They were similar in that both:
a. Involved direct face-to-face contact with subjects.
b. Involved primarily male subjects.
c. Confronted the subject with a conflict.
d. Involved the study of attitude-change.
October, 2007
Milgram's large-scale television study, reported in his book (with Shotland), "Television and anti-social behavior: Field experiments" (also in abridged form in Milgram's book "The Individual in a Social World"), conducted in 1970 and 1971, used methods that are unique till the present day. Yet they are rarely mentioned in textbook discussions of media effects on viewer aggression. This is most likely due to the fact that:
a. The study found no evidence for television's negative influence.
b. The publisher printed only a small number of copies of the book, so few people knew about the research.
c. The subjects were juvenile delinquents and, therefore, not representative of the larger viewing public.
d. CBS, which funded the research with a $250,000 grant, was not happy with the results.
September, 2007
For decades, there has been a widespread belief that, because of ethical reasons, it would be impossible to conduct a Milgram-type obedience experiment today. This belief was disproved in January 2007
a. When a former member of the German secret police revealed that, under Communism, several universities in Eastern Europe were conducting them till the early 1990s.
b. When ABC's Primetime TV program showed such an experiment?using Milgram?s script and an exact copy of his machine?which had been conducted by social psychologist Jerry Burger at Santa Clara University in California with safeguards in place to make it ethically acceptable.
c. When it was revealed that one of Milgram's students conducted a role-played version in 1975.
d. When the British entertainer and 'psychological illusionist' Derren Brown, as shown in his TV program 'The Heist,' had apparently conducted such an experiment as a selection procedure to identify individuals who could be conditioned to impulsively rob the driver of an armored truck at gunpoint.
August, 2007
The importance of the obedience experiments has overshadowed some of Milgram's other pioneering work; such as, helping give rise to the discipline of
a. Urban psychology
b. Man-machine interaction
c. Internet experiments
d. Field experimentation
e. Computer simulation of behavior
July, 2007
The phrase "Six degrees of separation" is rooted in some innovative research conducted by Milgram, although he himself never used that phrase. He called that research:
a. Studies of alienation
b. Human geography
c. Social network analysis
d. The small-world problem
e. The affiliation and bonding experiment
June, 2007
Milgram's obedience experiments were involved in, or at least touched on, a number of issues or controversies in the history of social psychology. One of these controversies involved the possible use of an alternative method of research that would be free (it was thought) of the ethical problems raised by the experimental procedures commonly used by social psychologists. What was that alternative method?
a. Role-playing studies
b. Observation of naturally occurring behavior (rather than experimental manipulation)
c. Allowing subjects to withdraw their data from experiments they participated in
d. Use of only subjects who had prior experience serving in experiments
May, 2007
Although Milgram conducted the obedience experiments early in his career, it was not his first published research. That was
a. A study on the effects of mescaline on art appreciation.
b. The lost-letter technique.
c. The social psychology of photography.
d. A cross-cultural study of conformity.
e. The drawing power of groups of different size.
April, 2007
One of the major disappointments in Milgram's life was his failure to get tenure at one of the schools where he taught. Which school denied him tenure?
a. Harvard
b. Yale
c. Princeton
d. City University of New York (CUNY)
March, 2007
From 1972 to 1976, Milgram—together with his graduate student, Harry From—produced a number of films on social psychology, some of which won awards. Which of the following was not one of them?
a. Nonverbal Communication
b. Invitation to Social Psychology
c. The Social Animal
d. The City and the Self
e. Human Aggression
f. Conformity and Independence
February, 2007
Published discussions of the obedience experiments are sometimes coupled with another study or body of research because both of them can be seen as powerful demonstrations of situational power overriding personal inclinations. What is the name of that other study or body of research?
a. The bystander intervention research
b. The Stanford prison experiment
c. Group polarization experiments
d. Experiments on disinhibition and deindividuation
e. Studies on the destructive effects of media violence
January, 2007
Almost from the beginning, Milgram's obedience experiments have stirred the dramatic imagination. Over the years, a number of plays based on those experiments have been produced. Which of the following is the title of the first such play (and the only published one)?
a. The Dogs of Pavlov
b. Shock It to Me, Baby
c. One More Volt
d. Tolliver's Trick
December, 2006
The results of Milgram's obedience experiments have sometimes been described as providing scientific support for
a. The point of view expressed by Daniel Goldhagen in his book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners"
b. Hannah Arendt´
s observations about Adolf Eichmann, whose trial she attended in Jerusalem
c. William Shirer's ideas expressed in his book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich"
d. The idea that destructiveness is a part of human nature
November, 2006
Although Milgram conducted research on a variety of topics, there is a common thread running through most of them: The focus of the study?the dependent variable?was typically dichotomous; i.e., essentially a "yes" or "no" answer to the question of whether or not a certain outcome took place. For example, in the lost-letter technique, the dependent variable was whether or not the finder of a "lost letter" would mail it. Which of the following of Milgram's studies was an exception to this unifying characteristic of most of his research; i.e., did not involve a dichotomous outcome measure?
a. The subway studies
b. The small-world problem
c. The cross-cultural conformity experiments
d. Mental maps of cities
e. The television and anti-social behavior experiments
October, 2006
This past summer, there was an off-Broadway theatrical performance titled, "The answer is horse," consisting of a number of vignettes involving a variety of dramatic styles to effectively convey the contemporary relevance of Milgram's obedience experiments. What does the title of the performance have to do with those experiments?
a. It was one of the "teacher’
s" responses to one of the "learner’
s" answers in the word-matching task used in the experiments.
b. In a few of the replications carried out by others of the obedience experiments, the victim was an animal. The title refers to an experiment in which a horse was the victim.
c. The title actually had no relationship to the content of the performance. The producers just came up with a puzzling title to generate curiosity about the play and thereby increase the number of people who would come to see it.
d. None of the above.
September, 2006
In order to highlight the fact that in his obedience experiments he discovered something we did not know before, Milgram described one of his standard experiments to a number of different groups and asked them to predict "how other people would perform." While he reports that all groups vastly underestimated the actual percentage of subjects who were fully obedient, he was most specific about one of the groups, whose members predicted that "about one subject in a thousand would administer the highest shock on the board." Which of the following groups that he had asked for predictions do you think he was referring to?
a. Graduate students and faculty in the behavioral sciences
b. A group of psychiatrists
c. College sophomores
d. Middle-class adults
August, 2006
In the early 1970s, a paper (based on a Master?s thesis) bearing the title, ?Obedience to authority with an authentic victim,? was presented at a psychology convention. What did the ?authentic victim? in the title refer to?
a. The ?learner? was a victim of spousal abuse
b. A puppy that actually did receive electric shocks
c. The ?learner? had once been a victim of violent crime
d. The ?learner? was a Holocaust survivor
July, 2006
Milgram?s obedience experiments, together with a handful of other ethically problematic research studies, are often described as being responsible for leading the U.S. government to create regulations to protect the well-being of human research subjects. Which of the following ethically controversial studies is NOT typically included among the handful of studies?
a. A study in which subjects? breathing was temporarily stopped pharmacologically
b. A study in which jury deliberations were tape-recorded without the jurors? knowledge or consent.
c. A study of homosexual encounters in public bathrooms
d. The Tuskegee syphilis study
e. A study in which elderly, frail patients were injected with cancer cells without their consent
June, 2006
Some months after their participation in his obedience experiments, Milgram sent his participants a questionnaire asking them to reflect back on their experiences. One question asked how glad or sorry they were to have been in the experiments. It used a 5-point scale format with response options ranging from ?very glad?? to ?very sorry??. The percentage of subjects who answered ?sorry?? or very sorry?? was about:
a. 80%
b. 1.5%
c. 10%
d. 45%
e. 65%
f. 95%
May, 2006
Some people (for example, Gordon Allport) have called Milgram?s experiments:
a. The My Lai experiments
b. The Gulag experiments
c. The Eichmann experiments
d. The Saddam Hussein experiments
e. The Manchurian Candidate experiments
April, 2006
One of Milgram?s articles was titled, ?The image-freezing machine.? What was he referring to?
a. guns
b. cameras
c. camcorders
d. computers
March, 2006
As of this writing, email versions of two of Milgram?s research techniques or studies have been conduced. They are:
1. His subway study
2. Mental maps
3. Lost-letter technique
4. Cyranoids
5. The small-world method
6. Television and anti-social behavior
7. Psychology of photography
a. 6 and 7
b. 2 and 5
c. 1 and 4
d. 4 and 7
e. 3 and 5
February, 2006
Which of the following best describes Milgram?s ?familiar stranger??
a. A person we might meet at, say, a party who looks very familiar, but you are sure you never met before.
b. Someone you were once close to, but the relationship cooled a long time ago.
c. You meet someone, whom you know for sure, but haven?t seen in a long time, but can?t recall his name.
d. Someone you see virtually every day over a span of years, but you never talk to each other.
January, 2006
Milgram?s shock machine is sometimes confused with a different shock machine developed by another psychologist, who used it to study aggression, not obedience. Who was that other psychologist?
a. Leonard Berkowitz
b. Arnold Buss
c. Albert Bandura
d. Robert Baron
e. Philip Zimbardo
f. Elliot Aronson
g. Seymour Feshbach
h. Stanley Schachter
December, 2005
Replications of Milgram?s obedience experiments have been conducted in a number of countries outside of the U.S.A. In which country was the first published replication conducted?
a. (West) Germany
b. Spain
c. Austria
d. Jordan
e. Italy
f. Australia
November, 2005
Milgram conducted research on other phenomena, besides obedience to authority. Which of the following is the last one he studied before his death?
a. The lost-letter technique
b. The familiar stranger
c. The ?image-freezing machine?
d. Cyranoids
e. Cross-cultural study of conformity
f. Television and anti-social behavior
g. The small-world problem (?Six degrees of separation?)
October, 2005
Which one of the following psychologists did Milgram consider his primary scientific influence?
a. Solomon Asch
b. Gordon Allport
c. Leon Festinger
d. Kurt Lewin
September, 2005
During his lifetime, Milgram was on the faculties of three different universities. Which of the following was NOT one of them?
Harvard
Princeton
CUNY
Yale
March, 2002
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
November, 2001
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.
May, 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.
March, 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
January, 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
November, 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
October, 2000
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.
July, 2000
For his doctoral dissertation, Milgram conducted a cross-cultural study comparing the conformity levels of people in 2 different European countries, using a variation of Asch's procedure. Which 2 countries did Milgram compare? And, who conformed more?
June, 2000
What does the "37" stand for in Peter Gabriel's song, "We do what we're told-Milgram's 37"?
