Stanley Milgram kept data sheets like the one pictured here for all 24 variations of his obedience experiments. However, while he conducted the experiments over 10 months in 1961 and 1962, he published the results of the obedience experiments in a piecemeal and sporadic fashion over a 10 year period.
His first journal article reported on the first of the 24 variations of the experiment. His 1974 book reported 17 of the variations but some variations such as the secret variation that used pairs of loved ones as teachers and learners was never published.
Along with my colleagues at the University of Melbourne Nick Haslam and Stephen Loughnan, we have published a complete list of the experimental variations that Milgram conducted, as well as a meta analysis of the data. Quite apart from revising the conclusions that can be drawn from Milgram’s research, we’ve got some interesting data on textbook discussions of the obedience studies.
Out of ten textbooks we reviewed, the average mentioned seven of Milgram’s obedience variations, but nine were ignored completely.
With all Milgram’s data now published and new light shed on previously unknown obedience research it’s time to revise the textbooks to include full and factual accounts of social psychology’s most famous experiments.
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