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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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 Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 7:49 pm Post subject: Wow 6 Degrees of Separation study was a fraud |
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http://scienceblogs.com/culturedish/2009/01/famous_six_degrees_of_separati.php
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| Judith Kleinfeld, a professor psychology at Alaska Fairbanks University, went back to Milgram's original research notes and found something surprising. It turned out, she told us, that 95% of the letters sent out had failed to reach the target. Not only did they fail to get there in six steps, they failed to get there at all. Milgram was a giant figure in his world of research, but here was evidence that the claim he was famously associated with was not supported by his experiments. |
Interestingly this study was conducted by the same guy who did the famous "guy in a white lab coat can make you shock people" study that is also greeted these days with some post-hoc skepticism. |
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Leslie Cheswyck
Joined: 31 May 2003
Location: University of Western Chile
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Judith Kleinfeld? I know somebody who knows her! |
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Rusty Shackleford
Joined: 08 May 2008
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| Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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Wow, I'm surprised by this. I thought they did a study recently that replicated the results? I just finished reading "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell and he cites that study quite extensively. According to the study, 60% of the letters found their way to the guy in question through one other person.
Interesting. |
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meangradin
Joined: 10 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:02 am Post subject: |
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| Interestingly this study was conducted by the same guy who did the famous "guy in a white lab coat can make you shock people" study that is also greeted these days with some post-hoc skepticism |
What exactly is the criticism of Milgrim's results? I really enjoyed social psych. in my university days, and he, of course, is a legend in the field.
Anyone familar with Harlow's terror experiments? Those poor little monkeys! |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:10 am Post subject: |
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| Rusty Shackleford wrote: |
| "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell .. cites that study quite extensively. |
That book was so disappointing I wouldn't even give it away: its destination's the garbage can. By an author who turned previous success in popularizing an idea into his own cottage industry. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:56 am Post subject: |
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| Rusty Shackleford wrote: |
Wow, I'm surprised by this. I thought they did a study recently that replicated the results? I just finished reading "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell and he cites that study quite extensively. According to the study, 60% of the letters found their way to the guy in question through one other person.
Interesting. |
According to the wiki page, MS studied its MSN network and found people were connected via 6.6 people. It is entirely possible the claim is true. But the original experiment's results did not actually support the conclusion. |
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