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The picture above is of Stanley Milgram, the author of this study, sitting next to his "shock machine". His parents were Jewish and fled to the United States to escape persecution by the Nazis. I do not know if this part of Stanley's life influenced him but after gaining his professorship at Yale University he started on a series of studies, of which this is one, six months after the start of the Trial of the War Criminal Adolf Eichmann. He also joined a group of psychologists who were investigating certain aspects of the Second World War, e.g. Solomon Asch who investigated conformity, etc.
Although Professor Stanley Milgram is well known for his studies into obedience, what he is less well known for is his investigation into the degree of connectiveness, including the six degrees of separation concept. Later in his career Milgram developed a technique for creating interactive hybrid social agents, called cryanoids, which have since been used to explore aspects of social- and self-perception.
He is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Social Psychology. A Review of
General Psychology survey in 2002 placed Milgram as 46th most-cited psychologist of the 20th century.
Click here to get a summary of the 1963 study into Obedience by Professor Stanley Milgram.