AO1 Situational variables affecting obedience

Milgram: Procedure 

• 40 male participants 

• Ss informed it was a study investigating how punishment impacts learning 

• Set up to make participant the teacher every time whilst confederate played role of learner 

• Teacher required to test a learners ability to remember word pairs 

• For every incorrect answer given by the learner, or if there was no answer given, the teacher was instructed to give electric shocks in increasing voltage starting at 15v and continuing to 450v in 15v increments 

• In one variation the confederate gave mainly wrong answers and received the shocks in silence until 300v 

• At 300v the confederate pounded on the wall and then gave no response to the next question 

• He repeated pounding on the wall at 315 volt shock 

• After 315 the confederate stopped responding completely 

• If the participant asked to stop at any point, the experimenter gave a series of prompts ‘It is essential that you continue’ 

Milgram: Findings

• It was predicted prior that very few participants would go beyond 150v. They estimated 0.1% of Ss would go the full 450v 

• However 65% administered the maximum 450v 

• All participants went to 300v 

• Only 12.5% stopped at the very first time the learner objected

Milgram situational factors: Proximity

• Both teacher and learner seated in the same room

• Obedience levels fell to 40% 

• In a more extreme study, the teacher had to force the learners hand onto a shock plate and here the obedience rate fell to 30% 

• In a variation where the experimenter left the teacher to be by himself in the room and only gave instructions over the telephone, the vast majority defied the experimenter with only 21% going to 450v

Milgram situational factors: Location

• Conducted in a lab at Yale University 

• Ss said that this location gave them confidence of integrity of people involved, many saying that they wouldn’t have shocked the learner if the study was elsewhere

• Milgram tested this and did the study in a run-down office in Bridgeport, Connecticut where obedience rates fell slightly but NOT significantly with 48% of Ss giving 450v

Milgram situational factors: Uniform

• In baseline study the experimenter wore a white lab coat to symbolise scientific legitimacy and authority, uniforms are easily recognisable

• Variation where experimenter in lab coat gets removed and replaced by someone in ordinary clothes, in this obedience dropped to 20%