Obedience: Situational variables

• Situational variables: features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person's behaviour.
• 3 Situational variables Milgram carried out that effect obedience:

  • Proximity
  • Location
  • Uniform
• Milgram conducted various experiments to consider the situational variables that affect obedience;

  > Proximity:

  • When the teacher and learner were in the same room the obedience rate dropped to 40% than the 65% in the baseline study
  • When the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto the ‘electroshock plate’ obedience dropped to 30%
  • When the experimenter left the room obedience dropped to 20.5%
• Milgram conducted various experiments to consider the situational variables that affect obedience;

  > Location:

  When the study was conducted in a run-down building the obedience fell to 47.5%, whereas in the original study conducted in the prestigious Yale university obedience was 65%
• Milgram conducted various experiments to consider the situational variables that affect obedience;

  > Uniform:

  • In this variation, rather than the experimenter wearing a lab coat as a symbol of their authority, the experiment was taken over by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ in everyday clothes, the obedience rate dropped to 20%
• Strength of Milgram's situational variable studies: Other studies have demonstrated the influence of situational variables on obedience. In Bickmans study, confederates dressed in different outfits issued orders to pick up litter to people on the streets; people were twice as likely to obey the ‘security guard’.
• Strength of Milgram's situational variables studies: The findings have been replicated in other cultures. Meeus & Raaijmakers worked with Dutch participants, who were ordered to say stressful comments to interviewees. They found 90% obedience fell when proximity decreased. This shows that Milgram's findings are not limited to American males but are valid across cultures. 
• Limitation of Milgram’s situational variables studies: participants may have been aware the procedure was fake. Orne & Holland suggested that the variations were even more likely to trigger suspicion, therefore it is unclear whether the results are due to obedience or because the participants saw through the deception and just ‘play-acted’ influenced by demand characteristics. 
• Limitation of Milgram’s situational studies: Milgram's conclusions suggest situational factors determine obedience. Mandel argues this offers an excuse for genocide, e.g. oversimplifies the causes of the holocaust, that the Nazis were simply obeying orders.