Social Influence - Obedience

• What did Milgram seek an answer to?

  Why a high proportion of the German population obeyed Hitler’s commands to murder members of other social groups

  He thought perhaps German’s were different from people in other countries
• Define obedience


  A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order

  Person issuing order usually a figure of authority who has powers punish when there is no obedience
• Who designed a baseline procedure to assess obedience levels?

  Milgram
• What was Milgram’s baseline procedure?

  • 40 American men to take part in ‘memory‘ study
  • Learner (confederate) wired up with electrodes
  • Teacher (ppt) given small genuine shock to experience
  • Learner had to remember pairs of words
  • When an error is made - teacher delivered stronger electric shock by pressing switches
  • Labelled from ‘Slight shock’ to ’Danger-severe shock’
  • At 300 volts pounded onto wall - at 315 volts pounded on wall and was silent for the rest of the procedure
  • Experimenter used 4 prods to order teacher to continue e.g. ‘please continue‘ or ‘you have no other choice you must go on’
• ‘In Milgram’s baseline procedure, the draw was fixed so the ppts were always the teacher. The study aimed to assess obedience where an authority figure ordered the ppt to give a high shock to a learner‘ True/False


  True
• What were the findings of Milgram’s baseline procedure?

  • All ppts delivered shocks up to 300 volts
  • 12.5% stopped at 300 volts
  • 65% continued to highest (450V)
  • Milgram collected qualitative data (incl observations)
  • Ppts shows signs of extreme tension, 3 had full blown seizures
• Before Milgram’s baseline procedure what did he do?

  • Asked 14 psychology students to predict the ppts behaviour
  • Students estimated no more than 3% of ppts would continue to 450 volts
  • Shows findings were unexpected
• What did Milgram do after his baseline procedure?

  • All ppts were debriefed and assured their behaviour was normal
  • Sent a follow up questionnaire - 84% glad to have participated
• What were Milgram's conclusions after his baseline procedure?

  • Conlcuded German people aren’t different
  • American ppts willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person
  • Suspected there are certain factors that encouraged obedience so conducted further studies to investigate these
• What are the evaluation points of Milgram’s baseline procedure into obedience?


  • Low internal validity (Orne & Holland)
  • Counterpoint (Study involving real shocks to puppies - Sheridan & King)
  • Ethical issues (Baumrind criticised Milgram’s use of deception)
  • Research support (Beauvois) 80% of ppts gave max shock to unconscious man
• What is the limitation of low internal validity for Milgram’s baseline procedure?

  • Milgram reported 75% of his ppts believed the shocks were genuine
  • Orne & Holland argued ppts behaved as if they didn’t believe in set up, they were just play acting
  • Perry’s research confirms this - listened to tapes of Milgram’s ppts & reported only 50% believed shocks were real
  • 2/3rds of these were disobedient
  • Suggests ppts were responding to DC trying to fulfill aims of study
• What is the counterpoint to low internal validity of Milgram’s baseline procedure (Sheridan & King)?

  • Conducted a study like Milgram’s
  • Ppts gave real shocks to a puppy in response to orders from experimenter
  • Real distress of animal - 54% of men & 100% women gave what they thought was fatal shock
  • Suggests the effects in Milgram’s study were genuine - people behaved obediently even when shocks were real
• What is the limitation of ethical issues in Milgram’s baseline procedure (Baumrind)?

  • Ppts were deceived : thought the allocation of roles was random - but it was fixed, thought shocks were real
  • Milgram dealt with it by debriefing but
  • Baumrind criticized Milgram for deceiving ppts - she believed deception in psychological studies can have serous consequences for ppts