Obedience- situational variables

• Stanley Milgram (1963) designed a baseline procedure that could be used to assess obedience levels
• The specification focuses on the findings and conclusions from Milgram's research
• The fuller details are at the bottom of the page for background reading
• Baseline procedure


  1. 40 American men volunteered to take part in a study supposedly on memory

  2. Each volunteer was introduced to another participant (a confederate of Milgram's)

  3. They drew lots to see who would be the 'Teacher' (T) and who would be the 'Learner' (L)

  4. The draw was fixed so that the participant was always the Teacher

  5. An 'Experimenter' (E) was also involved (also a confederate, dressed in a grey lab coat)
• The study aimed to assess obedience in a situation where an authority figure [Experimenter] ordered the participant (Teacher) to give an increasingly strong shock to a Learner located in a different room (in 15-volt steps up to 450 volts)
• The shocks were fake but the Teacher did not know this
• Baseline findings


  • Every participant delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts
  • 12.5% (five participants) stopped at 300 volts (intense shock)
  • 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts, ie they were fully obedient
• Milgram also collected qualitative data including observations such as: the participants showed signs of extreme tension; many of them were seen to 'sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their hands; three even had 'full-blown uncontrollable seizures
• Before the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict the participants' behaviour. The students estimated that no more than 3% of the participants would continue to 450 volts. This shows that the findings were unexpected-the students underestimated how obedient people actually are
• All participants in the baseline study were debriefed and assured that their behaviour was entirely normal. They were also sent a follow-up questionnaire-84% said they were glad to have participated
• Milgram concluded that German people are not different: The American participants in his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person
• Milgram suspected there were certain factors in the situation that encouraged obedience, so decided to conduct further studies to investigate these