milgram-situational variables
Subdecks (1)
Cards (11)
- procedure of milgram
- sample of 40 male volunteers
- initial study being conducted at yale uni in a lab
- single blind,as the participant was unaware of the real aim and was told it was testing how punishment affects learning.
- In each trial there was a confederate in same room who played the role of an experiemnter, wearing a lab coat and giving instructions to participant
- teacher and learner roles, confederate was always learner
- test ability to learn word pairs, instructed to administer a shock for every wrong answer- increased in severity from 15 volts all the way to 450
- 100 percent went to 300 volts
- 5 refused to go beyond this point
- 26 out of 40 went all the way to 450 - potentially lethal
- despite predictions of 1 in 1000 would go all the way 65% did
- ConclusionsOrdinary people are extremely obedient to authority, even when asked to behave in an inhumane manner. It is not evil people who commit atrocities but ordinary people obeying authorities.
- variations - Location
- Several participants remarked that the location gave them confident in the integrity of the researchers
- Yale uni changed to run down offices 48%- caused levels to slightly drop
- UNiform
- Lab coat swapped for office clothes 20% obedience
- Bushman carried out an experiment where a female researchers asked member of public to give change to a man for an expired parking meter.
- She was dressed as either a police officer beggar or businesswoman-72% obeyed in police uniform and this percentage dropped by of 20% when she was dressed in the other outfits.
- People stated that they obyeyed because she appeared to have authority
- Proximity
- Teacher in same room as a learner 40% able to directly experience the learners anguish
- Teacher presses hand of learner to a shock plate 30%
- Experimenter gives order over the phone 21% vast majority now defied the experimenter-less pressure to obey
- Social support- Two other teachers refusing 10% social support