Ordinary man gives orders

• Aim

  • To investigate if participants would still obey to administer harmful shocks when the authority figure is an ordinary man that is not wearing a lab coat. 
• Procedure

  • Mr Williams explains the procedure to the participant but then is called away. Crucially, Mr Williams doesnt tell the Teachers to increase the shock by 15V with each incorrect answer.
  •  a 2nd confederate present, who seems to be another participant, given the job of “writing down the times” of each test. Experimenter gone, this confederate suggests “a new way of doing the study,” taking the voltage up by 15V each time there’s a mistake.
• Procedua 13 a

  13(a) The confederate suggests swapping places: now the confederate gives the shocks and the disobedient participant writes down the times. The participant is now a bystander, watching someone else deliver the shocks
• Results 

  • In experiment 13 only 20% of participants gave the maximum 450V shock (1). Obedience level dropped from 65% in Milgram’s original experiment to 20% (1)
  • In experiment 13(a) - obedience increased to 68.75% when the confederate threatened to take his spot and switch roles, where they allowed the confederate to go to 450v 
• Conclusions

  • Obedience decreases the lower the prestige/status of authority figure is to the teacher (1).
  • Milgram concludes that people are more willing to be bystanders than to intervene to prevent the abuse of authority
• Improvements to be made 

  • Could have used a more realistic task 
  • A more realistic setting such as their own offices ⇒ understand effect of commands from peers/ordinary person
  • Female participants to generalise results