Milgram - Obedience

• Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order

  The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, having the power to punish when obedient behaviour isn't forthcoming
• Milgram wanted to research why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler during World War 2, as they all relied on obedience during their trials
• Milgram - Aim

  How far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another
• Procedure

  Participants told they were part of a study of how punishment affects learning, through word pairs

  True participants were really the teacher
• Procedure

  'Student' was seated behind a wall and the teacher couldn't see students face (decreases humanity and responsibility)

  Each time the student was wrong they got shocked

  Starting at 15 volts - 30 levels until 450 volts

  When at 300 volts, student poured at wall and stopped responding to the task

  told 'no response is a wrong answer'
• Findings

  Psychiatrists predicted no participants would go higher than 150 volts

  No participant stopped below 300 volts

  65% continued to the maximum 450 volts

  Qualitative data - tension, sweat, trembling, stuttering, biting their lips, digging nails into their hands
• Situational Factors

  • Proximity - would the position of the learner/teacher change obedience levels ?
  • Location - Would a prestigious location impact obedience?
  • Uniform - Would people obey someone in uniform more than not?
• Proximity

  When the teacher and learner were seated in the same room, obedience falls to only 40% as the teacher could experience the anguish more directly

  In a more extreme variation, the teacher forced there learners hand onto there shock plate (touch proximity condition)

  In the experimenter absent condition, orders were given over the phone, most defied the orders with only 21% continuing to maximum level - some even lying to the experimenter
• Location

  Yale university - location gave the participants confidence in the study, and belief in the integrity of the people involved

  Run-down office in Bridgeport Connecticut - Obedience dropped to 48%
• Uniform

  Bushman 1988

  Asked people in the street to give them change for an expired parking metre

  Police - 72% obedience

  Business executive - 42% obedience

  Beggar - 53% obedience