Obedience: Situational Variables

Proximity Explanation

Decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions.

Proximity Variation

In the proximity variation, the Teacher and Learner were in the same room and obedience dropped from 65% to 40%

Location Variation

When the research was conducted in a run-down office building instead of Yale, obedience fell to 47.5%

Location Explanation

The university environment gave Milgrams study legitimacy and authority so participants were more obedient as they perceived the experimenter as legitimate and so obedience was expected

Uniform Variation

In the baseline, the Experimenter wore a grey lab coat but in the uniform variation, this experimenter was replaced by a member of the public wearing normal clothes and obedience dropped to 20%

Uniform Explanation

Uniforms are widely accepted as a symbol of authority and so we accept that were supposed to obey them more than someone dressed not in uniform

Research Support

Bickman (1974) had three confederates, one dressed in normal clothes, one dressed in a milkmans outfit, and one dressed in a security guards uniform, ask passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or handing over a coin for the parking meter

Cross-Cultural Replications

Milgrams findings have been replicated in other cultures

Low Internal Validity

Participants may have been aware the procedure was faked

The Danger of the Situational Perspective

David Mandel (1998) argues this explanation offers an excuse for evil behaviour and that it is offensive to survivors of the Holocaust to suggest the Nazis were simply obeying orders