Situation

• Legitimacy of authority figures

  Perceived legitimacy can be altered through uniform (casual dress reduces obedience) and reducing prestige/status of the venue (e.g. rundown office building reduces obedience).
• Proximity of authority figure

  As the distance between the participant and authority figure increases, obedience reduces. Bibb Latane's social impact theory refers to this as "immediacy" - the closeness of the target in terms of space and time.
• Behavior of others


  Exposure to role models who are disobedient decreases obedience. In one of Milgram's variations, when 2 peers rebelled and 2 teachers refused to carry on, obedience dropped to 10%.
• Meeus + Raaijmakers (1995) asked participants to give insults to a confederate applying for a job. What percentage of participants delivered all 15 insults?

  90% of participants delivered all 15 insults to the confederate, compared to when 2 rebellions were witnessed.
• What did Milgram's variations show about personality as a key aspect?

  There were individual differences in Milgram's variations - some refused to continue to higher shock levels despite the situation not changing, showing personality as a key aspect.
• Application to role breaking: Countryside rules


  In the countryside, there is no authority figure to enforce rules, so some could disobey and threaten wildfires. Dames Gramann et al. (1995) found that if information was provided about the reasons behind the rules, this increased the likelihood that participants felt they would obey. Such signs provide immediacy, even when there is no authority figure present, and they provide strength as they indicate the power that could potentially be brought to bear.