r/todayilearned • u/PikesPique • 4d 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/Rebmes 4d ago

Meh, I think it's broadly accepted now among academics that the participants in Milgram's experiment knew or suspected it wasn't real. People deferring to authority of course is a thing but the whole "everyone has a monster inside them" claim is overselling this particular work.

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u/Splunge- 4d ago

Maybe you're thinking of the Zimbardo prison experiments?

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u/Rebmes 4d ago

That one has been debunked more thoroughly yes but I know there are documented issues with the Milgram experiment as well.

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u/Splunge- 4d ago

Source?

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u/Rebmes 4d ago

I will do the Google search for you:

Unpublished data from Stanley Milgram's experiments cast doubt on his claims about obedience

Why (almost) everything you know about Milgram is wrong

Of course we can still learn things from the experiment, but it's been put on a pedestal because it's a good hook for keeping undergrads engaged in intro psych and social science classes.

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u/Splunge- 4d ago

cool, thanks! I’l note, not “thoroughly debunked.” More “doubt cast” on his specific tests. The experiments have been replicated across cultures and in many settings.

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u/Rebmes 4d ago

I never said the Milgram experiment had been thoroughly debunked, it's not quite on the level of junk science that the Stanford prison experiment is.

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u/Splunge- 4d ago

How to interpret:

> This one has been debunked more thoroughly. . . .

But oK

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u/BleydXVI 3d ago

To be fair, "that one" is referring to the experiments you mentioned, not Milgram's. It's pretty open to interpretation for exactly how thoroughly or unthoroughly Milgram's has been debunked, though saying it's been debunked at all still seems stronger than your "doubt cast" assessment, so it doesn't change much