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Obedience, Power, and Violence
Is an ordinary person capable of committing heinous acts? After the Holocaust (1941-45), many questioned how Nazi soldiers were capable of such senseless murder. Did it take a certain type of person, or did there exist situational factors that enabled their behavior? This historical moment inspired a series of influential psychological studies. Milgram’s Electric Shock…
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Milgram’s Other Work
Stanley Milgram is one of the most famous people in the history of psychology, and also one of the most controversial because of his work on obedience. But many people are unfamiliar with Milgram’s work after his rise to fame.
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Are you more of a conformist during flu season?
Looking back on social psychology’s greatest hits, my mind always drifts first to studies on conformity, largely because they make such good stories. Take Asch, for instance. Who would’ve thought that so many people would willingly follow the crowd in giving a blatantly wrong answer about line length? And then, of course, there’s Milgram. It…