AO3 Situational Variables in Obedience

• Milgram's research supports a situational explanation of obedience (proximity, uniform, location).
• As most of the supporting research is conducted in lab settings, it lacks ecological validity.
• There could be a risk of demand characteristics when testing situational variables in the lab.
• Mandel (1998) argues against situational variables being responsible for people's actions, as it ignores dispositional factors like personality.
• This idea supports the nurture side of the debate, in that external, environmental factors influence our behaviour.