Stanley Milgram (August 15, 1933 - December 20, 1984) was an American social psychologist renowned for his obedience experiments conducted at Yale University in the early 1960s. Born in New York City to Jewish immigrant parents, he earned his Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University in 1960. His obedience experiments demonstrated that ordinary people would inflict severe pain on others when instructed by an authority figure, sparking profound debates about human morality and research ethics. Milgram also conducted the "small world" experiment, which gave rise to the concept of "six degrees of separation." His research profoundly influenced social psychology, ethics, and political science. He died of a heart attack in New York at age 51.
