Obedience

• Obedience

  • a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order - normally from a person of authority
• Milgram (1963)

  • 40 american men
  • told they were taking part in a study on memory
  • introduced to another participant 'confederate'
  • given the role of 'teacher'
  • gave electrical shocks to learner in different room
  • experiment to see if they would obey the experimenter even when they were harming the learner
• Baseline findings

  • 100% delivered shocks up to 300V
  • 65% continued to the maximum 450V
  • collected qualitative data: sweating, stuttering...
• Strengths of baseline study

  • replicated on french tv show - behaviour was almost identical to the participants in milgrams study
  • Sheridan and King - electrical shocks to puppies
• Limitations of the baseline study

  • ethical issues - deception
  • participants may not have believed they were giving real shocks
  • low internal validity - demand characteristics