OBEDIENCE

• MILGRAM (1963) BASELINE OBEDIENCE STUDY:

  PROCEDURE =

  Recruited 40 American male participants supposedly for a study of memory. 

  Each participant arrived at Milgram’s lab and drew lots for their role. 

  A confederate (‘Mr Wallace’) was always the ‘learner’ while the true participant was the ‘teacher’.

  An ‘experimenter’ (another confederate) wore a lab coat.
• PROCEDURE 


  The learner was strapped into a chair in a separate room and wired with electrodes.

  The learner’s task was to remember word pairs. The teacher delivered shocks by pressing switches on a ‘shock machine’ labelled from ‘slight shock’ to ‘danger - severe shock’.

  If the teacher felt unsure about continuining, the experimenter used a sequence of 4 standard ‘prods’:

  1. Please continue / please go on
  2. The experimenter requires you to continue 
  3. It is absolutely essential that you continue 
  4. You have no other choice, you must go on
• PROCEDURE 


  The teacher had to give the learner an increasingly severe electric ‘shock’ each time he made a mistake on a task. The shocks increased in 15-volt steps up to 450 volts. 

  The shocks were fake but the shock machine was labelled to make them look increasingly severe. 

  If the teacher wished to stop, the experimenter gave a verbal ‘prod’ to continue.
• KEY FINDINGS 


  12.5% (five participants)  stopped at 300 volts. 

  65% continued to 450 volts (highest level) 

  Observations (qualitative data) - participants showed signs of extreme tension. 3 had ‘full-blown uncontrollable seizures’ 
• OTHER FINDINGS 


  Before the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict how they thought the naive participants would respond. The students estimated no more that 3% would continue to 450 volts (so the findings were unexpected). 

  After the study, participants were debriefed. Follow-up questionnaire showed 84% were glad they had participated.
• CONCLUSIONS 


  We obey legitimate authority even if that means that our behaviour causes harm to someone else. 

  Certain situational factors encourage obedience.