Stats and Studies

• Lucas et al. (2006)


  • Greater conformity to incorrect answers when given more difficult maths problems
• Perrin and Spencer


  • Very little conformity amongst science and engineering students (1/396 trials)
  • Less affected by ISI
• Asch's study


  • Baseline: Participants conformed 36.8% of the time and 75% conformed at least once (meaning 25% never conformed)
  • Group size - 2 confederates conformity to the wrong answer was 13.6% 3 confederates conformity rose to 31.8%
  • Unanimity - Conformity decreased to 5% when the confederate gave the correct answer, 9% when they gave a different incorrect answer (or just 5%)
  • Task difficulty – Conformity increased
  • ISI - Asch found that students are less conformist (28%) than other participants (37%)
• Zimbardo's prison experiment


  • Baseline: The guards took on their role with enthusiasm began to humiliate and punish the prisoners and threaten their psychological and physical health
  • Prisoners showed signs of mental and emotional distress e.g. disorganised thinking, uncontrollable crying, screaming, rage
  • Deindividuation occurred
  • The study was stopped after 6 days instead of 14
• Banuazizi and Mohavedi (1975)


  • Suggest that participants were play-acting (demand characteristics)
  • Much smaller than a real prison
  • Approximately 90% of the prisoners' conversations were about prison life and half introduced themselves as their ID number to the priest when he visited
• Milgram's study of obedience

  • Baseline: All went up to 300V, five of them (12.5%) stopped at 300 volts 65% went up to 450 volts
  • Participants showed signs of extreme tension (sweating and trembling) and 3 had seizures
  • Run down office – 47% obeyed
  • Teacher and learner same room – 40% obeyed
  • Teacher forces learners' hand onto plate – 30% obeyed
  • Orders by phone – 20.5% obeyed
  • Member of public experimenter – 20% obeyed
• Blass and Schmidt


  • When shown a film of Milgram's study, students stated the experimenter was responsible due to their legitimate authority
• My Lai massacre (hierarchy in the US army) or Holocaust (Hitler's power to punish and those ranked below take orders)

  Explains destructive obedience
• Elms and Milgram


  • Interviewed fully obedient participants from Milgram's study (they went up to the full 450 volts)
  • They all scored highly on the F-Scale and were less close to their fathers during childhood
• Allen and Levine (1971)


  • Independence increased with one dissenter in an Asch-type study, even if wore thick glasses and said he had problems with vision
  • Reducing NSI
• Gamson et al (1982)


  • 29/33 groups of participants (88%) rebelled against an oil company's order to produce evidence for a smear campaign
• Holland (1967)


  • Replicated Milgram's study
  • 37% of internals vs 23% externals did not continue to the highest shock level (showed resistance)
• Twenge et al


  • Meta-analysis showed that people are becoming more resistant to obedience but also more external
• Moscovici study


  • Agreement was on 8.42% of trials in the consistent minority condition and fell to 1.25% in the inconsistent minority condition
• Nolan


  • Participants who had the sign 'most residents are trying to reduce energy usage' significantly reduced their energy use compared to controls
• Mackie argues majority influence leads to deeper processing