Obedience and Compliance

Obedience

complying with commands which are often given by a source of authority.

Compliance

involves changing one's behaviour in response to a request, but it does not involve an authority figure

Milgrims Experiment ( Background)

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, wondered these things, and conducted a study focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. His experiment ran in 1961

Status of Authority Figures

Greater status or power of Authority increases the extent of obedience

Group Pressure

Tendency to obey increases as the number of "others" who also obey increases

Physical Proximity

Greater physical proximity between individual and someone who made a command increase the likelihood of obedience

Relationship proximity

Greater relationship proximity between individual and someone who made a command increase the likelihood of obedience

Group pressure

Tendency to obey increases as the number of 'others' who also obey increases