Situational variables

• Proximity

  • Teacher and Learner in the same room
  • Obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
  • Touch proximity variation (teacher forced learner's hand onto shock plate if they refused) - obedience dropped to 30%
  • Remote instruction variation (experimenter left room and gave instructions by telephone) - obedience dropped to 20.5%
  • Explanation - decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from their actions - they feel less responsible
• Location

  • Variation carried out in a worn-down office block rather than prestigious Yale University - obedience fell to 47.5%
  • Explanation - The prestigious university environment gave Milgram's study legitimacy and authority
  • Participants were more obedient in this setting because they perceived that the Experimenter shared this legitimacy and that obedience was required.
  • However, obedience was still high in this variation due to the perceived 'scientific' nature of the experiment
• Uniform

  • In the baseline study the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of authority.
  • In one variation, the Experimenter was 'called away' because of an 'emergency' and a 'member of the public' (wearing everyday clothes) took over instead
  • Obedience dropped to 20%
  • Explanation - Uniforms encourage obedience as they are universally recognised as symbols of authority. We accept that someone in a uniform is entitled to expect obedience because their authority is legitimate
• The obedience alibi

  • Mendel (Jewish) - it offers an excuse for evil behaviour
  • He views it as offensive to the Holocaust survivors that the Nazis were simply 'obeying orders'
  • Milgram also ignores dispositional explanations