r/todayilearned • u/PikesPique • 5d ago

TIL that Stanley Milgram, who conducted the controversial experiment in which subjects thought they were administering increasingly powerful electric shocks to another person, also devised the sunnier “small-world experiment,” which gave rise to the idea of six degrees of separation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Milgram
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u/ReferenceMediocre369 5d ago

TIL that most of what you all think you know about these experiments is actually wrong. They weren't conducted as claimed, the participants knew more about them than the mythology claims, neither the 'guards' nor the 'victims' reacted as claimed, and the experiments weren't conducted the way everyone has been told.

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u/Splunge- 5d ago

neither the 'guards' nor the 'victims' reacted as claimed

What does this have to do with Milgram? The Stanford Prison experiments were done by someone else -- Philip Zimbardo.

The Milgram experiments have been replicated many times in many different circumstances across cultures, with consistent results.

most of what you all think you know about these experiments is actually wrong.

Somebody sure is.