variables affecting obedience - milgram

• Obedience

  Behaviour in compliance with a direct command, often one issued by a person in a position of authority.
• Obedience - Milgram (1963)


  Wanted to know why ordinary Germans obeyed Nazi orders during the Holocaust. He believed that the tendency to obey authority is a universal human behaviour, suggesting that in the right situation most people would like show high obedience.
• Milgram (1963) Procedure


  Milgram advertised his obedience experiment as a memory study to avoid biasing the results. 40 male participants were greeted by individuals they assumed were a scientist in a lab coat and a participant. However, these were confederates.

  The roles of 'teacher' and 'learner' were assigned, with the setup fixed so that the real participant was always the teacher. The 'learner' (confederate participant) was then strapped into a chair and connected to electrodes.
• Milgram (1963) Procedure - task

  The real participant was led to another room containing a device with switched labelled from 15 to 450 volts, with descriptions ranging from 'slight shock' to 'danger severe shock'. The teacher's task was to ask the learner questions and give an electric shock for every incorrect answer, escalating the voltage by 15v with each mistake.
• Milgram (1963) procedure - task details

  As the (fake) shocks increased, the participant could hear the learner's reactions from the other room and silence after 300 volts, suggesting severe harm or death.

  If participants questioned their responsibility, the scientist would say that he was responsible for the experiment. If the participant refused to continue, the scientist would encourage continuation using 4 scripted prompts; 'please continue', ' the experiment requires you to continue', it is absolutely essential that you continue', and finally, 'you have no other choice; you must go on'.
• Milgram's (1963) findings

  100% if the participants shocked up to 300 volts.

  65% of the participants continued all the way up to 450 volts.

  Footage from the experiment shows that the participants were visibly stressed.
• Variables affecting obedience

  • Proximity
  • Location
  • Uniform
• Proximity

  Milgram increased the distance between the participants and the authority figure by having the authority provide instructions via telephone instead of being in the same room. Obedience rates dropped from 65% to 21%. Milgram argued that due to the increased distance participants were less likely to remain in an 'agentic state' and more likely to return to an 'autonomous state'.
• Location

  Milgram's originally held his experiment at Yale University, when replicated at a run-down office block, the obedience rate dropped to 47.5%. As Yale is a high-status university, the status of the location increased the scientist's legitimacy of authority by making them seem more genuine. The low-status location reduced the legitimacy of authority and the level of obedience.
• Uniform

  Milgram's original experimenter wore a grey lab coat. In one variation, the researcher in the lab coat received a phone call, made an excuse to leave, and was replaced by another confederate dressed in regular clothes; this new experimenter had reduced legitimacy of authority, explaining the drop in obedience rate to 20%.
• + Use of standardised procedure


  E - Milgram's use of a standardised procedure (pre-recordings of participant responses and clear scripts for the exerimenter), meant there was high levels of control.

  E - This meant that the participants had precisely the same experience and the study can be easily replicated as seen by Blass (2012) who found the results to be reliable across eight additional countries and time periods.

  L - Therefore, the use of a standardised procedure has increased the reliability of the findings.
• / Ethical issues


  E - Milgram's experiment is considered highly unethical as his participants suffered emotional distress during the study; it was difficult for them to withdraw; and they were deceived about the type of study which means they were unable to provide informed consent.

  E - This shows how Milgram's study required multiple ethical guidelines to be broken.

  L - However, it can be argued this was necessary in order to gather accurate findings.
• / Biased sample


  E - The sample in Milgram's study was not representative since his participants were all male and all from the U.S. This was due to them volunteering to be in the experiment from a newspaper.

  E - This means that the findings from his experiment may not be generalisable to females or people from different cultures.

  L - Therefore, the experiment lacks external validity and does not explain obedience in everyone.
• + Research support for uniform


  E - Bickman (1974) conducted an experiment where had 3 confederates dress in different outfits - jacket + tie - milkman uniform - security guard uniform. Confederates stood on the street and asked passers to perform tasks such as picking up rubbish or lending someone money for parking. People were twice as likely to obey to the security guard rather than the other two.

  E - Supports the idea of uniform increasing obedience.

  L - Therefore, this increases the reliability of Milgram's findings on variables affecting obedience.