Milgram makes local news – 51 years on

Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments made the news in New Haven yesterday. And Bob McDonough, whose local knowledge and research has been so helpful to me, made the front page.

Local journalist Sandi Shelton wrote a story about how Bob and his family first discovered that Bob’s father Jim had played the “Learner” in Milgram’s famous experiments in 1974, twelve years after Jim McDonough’s death. Even stranger, they discovered it from a show on TV.

It’s a great story, and you can hear Bob tell it in my radio documentary about the research. Or you can read about it on Bob’s great blog. 

But back to the New Haven Register. There’ll be many people in New Haven this past weekend reading the article and recalling that disturbing event over fifty years ago.

Ironically, many of them would have become involved in the experiment because of the same newspaper. Milgram placed a half page ad in the news section of the New Haven Register on Sunday 18^th June, 1961. He also placed extra 5×1 inch column ads through the sports pages on the same day, sandwiched between reports of Jackie Kennedy holidaying solo in Greece, news of developments in North Korea and ads for New Haven department stories in the lead up to Father’s Day.

Milgram was disappointed with the number of responses to the ad – only 296 men replied – so he took to sending out direct mail. He sent over 2000 letters to men whose names and addresses he took from the local phone directory.

While I was researching my book I tried to interest the New Haven Register in a story about my search for people who took part. But perhaps because the experiments had happened so long ago or because of a belief that we knew all we needed to know about the experiments,  I couldn’t interest them in a story.

Finally I placed an ad in the New Haven Register asking people with memories of the experiments to contact me. Thankfully, some did. But I knew that there were many more in New Haven and the surrounding areas who would rather not recall that event.

I’ll always be grateful to the people who shared their stories with me. And to people like Bob McDonough for those extra miles he’s gone on my behalf, putting me in touch with people and conducting research in local and New York libraries for me.  Bob’s interest in the story is personal. In finding out about the obedience experiments, he’s discovered a lot about a father who died when he was just three.

This weekend’s article in the New Haven Register demonstrates the many ways a story can be told.  A scientist will present a story of statistics, of breakthroughs, of patterns of behaviour across large numbers of people. But ask one of the people who sat in front of the machine for their story of the same event, and a different picture emerges.

I’m glad Bob McDonough’s made the front page. His story is an important part of the puzzle of the Yale experiments. And I hope more people who read about it and remember taking part will talk to others about it. The more people speak up and share their experiences, the richer our understanding of these events are. So go on, drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you.