BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Rhetoric and standardization in Milgram's obedience experiments - 
 Stephen Gibson\, York St John University
DTSTART:20120217T130000Z
DTEND:20120217T140000Z
UID:TALK36195@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Megan Sim
DESCRIPTION:This presentation draws on materials from the Stanley Milgram 
 Papers collection held at Yale University Library in order to highlight so
 me hitherto largely neglected aspects of the obedience experiments.  The a
 rchives include audio recordings of many of Milgram’s experimental sessi
 ons\, as well as Milgram and his confederates discussing aspects of the ex
 perimental procedure.  Through considering these two lines of evidence\, i
 t is argued that (1) existing attempts to account for Milgram’s findings
  have neglected the role of rhetoric in the interactions between experimen
 ter and participants in the studies\; and (2) the received view of Milgram
 ’s experimenter as following a heavily standardized and rigid script is 
 unsustainable.  In fact\, the experimenter responded flexibly to the rheto
 rical strategies mobilized by participants in their attempts to argue thei
 r way out of the experimental situation.  Furthermore\, at least one of th
 e experimenter’s improvised strategies appears to have been incorporated
  into the standardized set of interjections (prods) available to the exper
 imenter.  However\, this strategy was omitted from Milgram’s published a
 ccounts of the studies.  These findings are considered in relation to work
  in the sociology of scientific knowledge on the contingency of standardiz
 ation\, and in light of recent scholarship on the Milgram experiments whic
 h suggests that they may not be about obedience at all.  To the extent tha
 t the audio recordings highlight the importance of argument and persuasion
  in the Milgram experiments\, it is suggested that they point the way to a
  perspective on the Milgram experiments informed by rhetorical psychology
LOCATION:PPSIS Seminar Room (Free School Lane)
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR