Milgrams Shock Study

• What was the aim of this study?

  How far will people go to obey an authority figure?
• Who were the ppts?

  40 white American male volunteers - responded to a newspaper advert
• Procedure: What happened when the ppts got there?

  • met ‘Mr Wallace’ (confederate) in the waiting room of Yale University
  • They drew straws to assign roles (teacher and learner)
  • This was fixed - the ppt is always the teacher - gives the illusion its by chance
• Procedure: What happened before starting the shocks?

  • Mr Wallace is taken to a room + ppt watches him be hooked up to an electric shock machine
  • Mr Wallace then complains of a weak heart (he's vulnerable)
  • Ppt gets a 45v shock from the machine (the only shock administered) - gives ppt a pain measure + know the machine is real
• Procedure: Shock delivery

  • ppt is then taken into another room, with Mr Williams (experimenter)
  • He wears a white lab coat to signify an elite subject - he's the authority figure
  • Ppt sits in front of a shock machine, with switches ranging from 15v-450v (each switch increases by 15v each time)
  • Ppt/teacher reads word pairs out to learner -> learner responds -> if response is wrong (learned gets wrong word pair) the teacher (ppt) must deliver a shock to Mr Wallce
  • This increases by 15v each time the answer is incorrect
• Why wasn't the ppt surprised to punish the learner for getting incorrect answers?

  At the time, punishment was normal inside schools e.g. The cane
• Procedure: Protest

  • the learner (Mr Wallace- confederate) does protest/ scream/ shout - this is a recording
  • This is standardised so all the ppts got the same info in the same order = control
• Procedure: Probes 


  • if the teacher/ ppt hesitated to deliver the shock, Mr Williams (experimenter) used probes
  • “You must go on”, “the experiment requires you to continue”
  • After 300v, Mr Wallace stopped responding -> gives the idea that he had died
• How much were ppts paid?

  $4.50 - they received this as long as they delivered the first shock but it would feel like a binding contract to some
• Results:

  • 100% went to 300v
  • 65% went to 450v
• Conclusion:

  People will obey a legitimate authority figure
• Debrief:

  All ppts debriefed at the end & asked to attend a follow-up 1 year later -> 84% said they were happy to have taken part.
• Strength: Hofling 


  • nurses took a phone call from the ‘on call doctor’ telling them to administer a lethal dosage of an unknown drug
  • 21/22 obeyed
  • Backs up Milgram
• Weakness: Rank & Jacobson

  • nurses asked by an unknown doctor to give a lethal dosage of Valium (a known drug) to patients
  • 2/18 obeyed
  • Goes against Milgram- nurses defied the authority
• Ethical issues:

  • informed consent-> ppts told it was on teaching and learning but it was actually on obedience - this was needed for natural behaviour
  • Deception-> 5 issues-> Mr Wallace screams were pre-recorded, Mr Wallace was a confederate, straws/roles were fixed, shocks were fake, Mr Williams was a confederate
  • Right to withdraw-> they did have the right but the probes made them feel they didn't
  • Protection from harm-> they walked away know in they would've killed a man and they got a 45v shock
• Methodological Issues:

  • ppts -> white, American males - doesn't explain female obedience, volunteers -may have been motivated
  • Individualistic cultures only
  • Research methods -> lab experiment, high control, standardised procedure -all ppts did the same things in the same order = shows cause and effect - Mr Williams led to obedience, authority