"Shocking" Masculinity
Stanley Milgram, "Obedience to Authority," and the "Crisis of Manhood" in Cold War America
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3337333 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ian Nicholson, I A Nicholson (0000-0001-6746-2312, St. Thomas University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 102 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 238-268 |
| Publication date | 2011-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Isis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-1753 • E-ISSN: 1545-6994 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1086/660129 |
| PMID | 21874687 |
| OpenAlex | W2107515675 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 19 |
| References cited | 25 |
Stanley Milgram's study of "obedience to authority" is one of the best-known psychological experiments of the twentieth century. This essay examines the study's special charisma through a detailed consideration of the intellectual, cultural, and gender contexts of Cold War America. It suggests that Milgram presented not a "timeless" experiment on "human nature" but, rather, a historically contingent, scientifically sanctioned "performance" of American masculinity at a time of heightened male anxiety. The essay argues that this gendered context invested the obedience experiments with an extraordinary plausibility, immediacy, and relevance. Immersed in a discourse of masculinity besieged, many Americans read the obedience experiments not as a fanciful study of laboratory brutality but as confirmation of their worst fears. Milgram's extraordinary success thus lay not in his "discovery" of the fragility of individual conscience but in his theatrical flair for staging culturally relevant masculine performances
Context (archaeology · Masculinity · Milgram experiment · Obedience · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · American History and Culture · Gender Studies · History · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social Psychology
Designing obedience in the lab
Social intervention in Curaçao
Introduction to the special issue
Livelihoods of theory
Milgram’s shock experiments and the Nazi perpetrators
“Torture at Yale”
The normalization of torment
Letting go of little Albert
The “Mad Men” of Nutrition
Milgram, Genocide and Bureaucracy
The last possible resort”
II. “Functionalism, Darwinism, and the Psychology of Women” as critical feminist history of psychology
Voices off
The making of burnout
Contextualizing a Life in Science
The Emergence of Milgram's Bureaucratic Machine
Acting otherwise
Well-being at the cost of welfare
Blots and All
Opinions and Social Pressure
On Being Sane in Insane Places
The One or the Other? Textual Analysis of Masculine Power and Feminist Empowerment
Issues in the study of obedience
A historical interpretation of deceptive experiments in American psychology
Obedience in Retrospect
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”
Unceasing Pressure for Penetration
The Arts of Deception
Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority
The price of obedience and the price of knowledge
Some thoughts on ethics of research
Masculinity as Ideology
Feeding the Organization Man
Unsupported allegations about a link between Milgram and the CIA
"Being the "Go-To Guy
Group pressure and action against a person
Behavioral Study of obedience
The Joy in Believing
| Unique citing works | 19 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,27 |
| Citation span | 2011 - 2026 (16) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 19 |