for obedience to occur, the obeying individual must believe they are following orders from a Legitimate authority figure.
Socialisation
We come to accept society is structured hierarchically, so people who have power have authority to punish them so likely to obey.
Uniform
Lab coat symbolises intelligence. Bickman studied this: PP were asked to pick up litter by a security guard where 80% complied compared to 40% who were dressed in plain clothes.
Location
they did the study in a prestigious, reputable place, Yale. They compared to a run down office where obedience was less.
Authoritative language
Experimenter gave verbal prods like ‘please continue‘ were used.
Evaluation
+real life application: positive consequence of obedience like responding to police officers.
Study by Hoffling
Conducted a study in hospital. Nurses were phoned by a Dr Smith who ask for 20mg of a drug which was disobeying regulations as not allowed to take orders from doctors over the phone but 21 out of 22 obeyed request from doctor.
Rank and Jacobson: asked nurses to carry out an irregular order and 16 out of 18 people refused. this is because the drug was familiar and allowed to discuss with colleagues.
