A01

• Milgram's obedience study employed a baseline procedure to measure obedience levels. 40 American men volunteered to take part, believing it to be a memory study. Each volunteer, always assigned as the "Teacher," was paired with a confederate acting as the "Learner." An authoritative "Experimenter" oversaw the proceedings. The task involved administering increasingly strong shocks, up to 450 volts, to the Learner, who was situated in another room. The shocks were fake, but the Teacher was not aware of this.
• Despite signs of distress and tension, 65% of participants followed orders to the highest shock level and 100% went up to 300 volts. Milgram found high obedience levels, going against predictions made by psychology students who said only 3% would continue to 450 volts. Qualitative data, in the form of observations, was also collected: behaviours such as sweating, stutters and trembling were recorded.

  Milgram's conclusion challenged the notion of inherent differences between nationalities, suggesting that situational factors heavily influence obedience.