AO1

• Milgrams Baseline procedure:

  • 40 American men volunteered to take part in the study, supposedly on memory
  • When each volunteer arrived at the lab he was introduced to another pps (a confederate)
  • The participant was made the teacher and confederate was made the learner
  • Study aimed to assess obedience in a situation where the experimenter ordered the participant to give an increasingly strong shock to the learner located in a different room 15-450
  • Shocks were fake but the teacher (pps) didn’t know
• Milgrams baseline findings:

  • Every pps delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts
  • 12.5% stopped at 300 volts and 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts
  • Collected qualitative data including observations such as pps showing signs of tension, seen to sweat, tremble, stutter and bite their lips
  • Three even had full blown uncontrollable seizures
• Other data:

  • Before, students estimated no more than 3% of the pps would continue to 450 volts
  • Shows findings were unexpected and students underestimated how obedient people are
  • 84% said they were glad to have participated
• Conclusions:

  • German people are not different
  • American pps I’m his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person