Experiment 3b

• 189 college students who had completed the previous questionnaire
• Participants were asked to predict what they are people in general would do in one of the scenarios from experiment 1
• Results showed that participants did not think the guard would have more social power in these situations compared to the milkman or civilian.
• Conclusions

  wearing a uniform gives people more power and influence over others behaviour than people not in uniform. The higher status uniform is perceived to have the more power it provides. How people think they would behave in a situation is not a good predictor of actual behaviour in that situation. Situational factors (type of uniform) have an influence on obedience in a real life setting with the higher the perceived status of the uniform resulting in increased obedience.