situational variables

• Situational variables = Milgram identified several factors that he believed influenced the levels of obedience shown by participants. They are all related to the external circumstances rather than the personalities of the people involved.
• Proximity:

  The teacher and learner were in the same room, obedience rates dropped from 65% to 40%.
• Proximity:

  In a more dramatic version, the teacher had to force the learner's hand onto an 'electroshock plate' when he refused to answer a question. Obedience rates dropped further to 30%.
• Proximity:

  In a third proximity variation, the experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the participant via telephone. The outcome was a further reduction in obedience to 20.5%. The participants also frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones than they were ordered to.
• Location:

  Milgram conducted a variation of the study in a run-down building rather than the prestigious university setting. This meant the experimenter had less authority. Obedience fell to 47.5%.
• Uniform:

  Milgram carried out a variation where the experimenter was called away because of an inconvenient telephone call and was replaced by an 'ordinary member of the public' (a confederate wearing ordinary clothes rather than a lab coat). The obedience rate dropped to 20%, the lowest of these variations.
• In a field experiment, Bickman had three confederates in dressed in three different outfits- jacket and tie, a milkman's outfit and a security guard uniform. The confederates stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter. People were twice as likely to obey the confederate dressed as a security guard than the one dressed in a jacket and tie. This supports Milgram's conclusion that a uniform conveys authority and is a situational factor likely to produce obedience.
• It is even more likely that participant's in Milgram's variations realised the procedure was fake because of the extra manipulation. For example, when the experimenter was replaced by a member of the public. Even Milgram recognised in this situation some participants may well have worked out the truth. This means it is unclear whether the results are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because participants saw through the deception and acted accordingly.
• The findings of cross-cultural research has been generally supportive of Milgram. Miranda et al. found an obedience rate of over 90% amongst Spanish students. This suggests Milgram's conclusions are not limited to American males but are valid across cultures and apply to females too.
• However, Smith and Bond make the crucial point that most replications have taken place in Western, developed societies. These are culturally not that different from the USA, so it would be premature to conclude that Milgram's findings apply to people everywhere.