OBEDIENCE: Milgram

When was Milgram study conducted?

1960s

what is the definition of obedience?

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority who has the power to punish when obedient behavior is not forthcoming.

Why did Milgram want to study obedience?

Post war he wanted to understand why the holocaust had happened and if the german people were just different and more obedient than others

Who took part in the study and how where they selected?

40 American men who volunteered by newspaper ad or letter in the post.

What where they told it was a study of?

memory

How were the roles in the experiment chosen?

One participant was put with one confederate and drew lots to decide who was the teacher and who was the learner (this was rigged so that the participant was always the teacher.

How was it set up?

the teacher sat at a desk with a shock machine with the researcher sat behind them taking notes. The learner was in a seperate room 'to be shocked' and the teacher could only hear them

what was the procedure?

The teacher is given a small shock to get an idea

Learners are asked to recite words told to them by the teacher (the confederate learners would get them wrong often)

For every wrong answer the teacher gave a 'shock' increasing from 15-450 volts (240V can kill you)

What did Milgram think the results would be?

He thought very few would be obedient - when asked, 14 psych students said that less than 3% would go all the way to 450V

What were the actual results of the study?

ALL participants went up to 300V

5 participants stopped at 300V

65% continued to 450V

Participants had signs of extreme tension at being made to continue.

3 participants had 'full-blown uncontrollable seizures'