Obedience: Milgram

• Obedience


  A form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority
• Milgram's Obedience study (1963)


  -Lab Experiment, test based on the German extermination of Jews

  -Took place at Yale University

  -Met with a confederate experimenter dressed in a lab coat to show authority

  -40 males between 20-50-Shock generator between two people following a test/questions-15 to 450 volts (no shocks administered)

  -Experiment was rigged, ‘victim’/students responses were pre-recorded and false

  -Roles were not random, all confederates were given the ‘teacher’ role

  -Correct answer=no shock   Incorrect answer= shock, increasing the level of shock at each wrong answer
• Milgram's Findings (1963)


  -65% of participants shocked all the way to the highest voltage (450v)

  -12.5% of participants shocked to only 300 volts

  -84% glad to have participated

  -Even though some dissented, they continued to obey the observer who prompted them to give shocks

  -3 subjects has seizures
• Milgram's Conclusion (1963)


  -Under certain circumstances, most would obey orders that are against their conscience

  -When people experience a subordinate position in a dominance hierarchy, they become liable to lose feelings of empathy/compassion/morality

  -Atrocities (WW2) may be largely explained in terms of pressures to obey powerful authority
• Negatives of Milgram's study

  Low internal validity- Orne and Holland, demand characteristics due to ppts believing the shocks weren't real

  Gina Perry (2013) Many ppts in the recording expressed their doubts about the shocks

  Ethical issues- psychological trauma from situation

  Low ecological validity- scenario is not true to real life (mundane realism)
• Positives of Milgram's study

  High external validity- Hofling et al. - 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed unjustified demands by doctors on a ward (external validity, proving the theory of obedience under authoritarian roles)- Field experiment, providing a

  Replication- La Jeu de la Mort (The Game of Death, French TV show) 80% of participants gave maximum shock to an ‘unconscious man’. Behaviour was identical to the study (e.g. nail biting..)

  Application to real life- Abhu Graib
• STRENGTH- High external validity, Holfing et al (AO3)

  • In the study, 22 nurses were phoned by an unknown "doctor" and instructed to administer 20mg of a fake drug double the recommended dosage—which would normally require written authorization.
  • 21 out of 22 nurses (95%) obeyed the order without questioning it, despite hospital rules forbidding such actions.
  • This supports Milgram by showing that people obey authority figures even when it goes against their moral judgment
  • obedience towards an authority figure extends outside of a lab setting
  • Therefore a strength as Milgram's findings can be applied to real life situations as an explanation