obedience + milgram's study

define obedience

• form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.

• person issuing order is usually a figure of authority who has the power to punish when an obedient behaviour isn’t forthcoming

who did an experiment on obedience and when?

• Milgram 1963

what was the aim of the investigation?

• to investigate whether ordinary American citizens would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain on another person because they were instructed to

what is the context of the investigation?

• the sample consisted of 40 male American participants aged 20-50

• participants were all volunteers who replied to an advert in a paper which offered $4.50 to take part in an experiment on ‘punishing and learning’

• 40 participants taken to a lab at yale university and met an experimenter with another ‘participant’, 47 year old man called Mr Wallace, who were both confederates

describe the method

• naive participant told that one person randomly assigned the teacher and the other as the learner (naive PPT always assigned the teacher)

• teacher would read learner a series of word pairs + test recall → if wrong, teacher administered electric shock + increased voltage after each mistake

• shock started from 15 volts to 450

• experimenter dressed in lab coat and ensured teacher to continue with experiment if they showed reluctance.

what happened in the voice feedback study?

• teacher in separate room to learner but could hear their response

• learner gave mostly wrong answers + received electric shocks in silence until they reached 300V → pounded on wall then gave no response afterwards

what are the findings?

• Milgram predicted teachers wouldn’t go over 150V

• found high levels of obedience:

• 65% teachers in voice feedback study continued to ‘maximum shock level’ of 450V despite volt generator being labelled ‘danger: sever shock’ at 420V and ‘XXX’ at 450

• all PPT went up to 300V with 12.5% stopping there (where they first objected)

conclusion

• findings indicate that the pressure to be obedient is very strong

• Milgram concluded that under the right circumstances, ordinary people will obey an unjust order