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Milgram's famous concept of 6 degrees of separation says that in a friend of friends network, how many steps separate people?

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Final answer:

Milgram's obedience experiments showed that 2/3 of participants would follow orders to administer what seemed like lethal shocks to others. The six degrees of separation concept is separate from his obedience work. Milgram's experiments reveal the extent of human obedience to authority.

Step-by-step explanation:

Stanley Milgram's famous concept, often referred to as the six degrees of separation, suggests that any two individuals are separated by approximately six steps within a friend of friends network. However, the student's question appears to be combining separate aspects of Milgram's work. The six degrees of separation theory is not directly related to his obedience studies. Instead, Milgram's obedience experiments demonstrated the surprising degree to which people are willing to obey authority figures. In his controversial study, 2/3 of the participants were willing to administer what appeared to be lethal electrical shocks to another person, simply because they were told to do so by an authority figure.

Several variations of the original Milgram experiment tested the boundaries of obedience. For instance, when the learner was made more visibly human or the authority of the experimenter was diminished, the rate of obedience decreased considerably. The findings of Milgram's research in obedience remain a significant topic of discussion in social psychology and ethics.

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