6. Milgram and Obedience

Obedience
occurs when we follow the commands of someone with authority , the rules or laws of society.

constructive obedience:
Occurs when there is compliance with orders of authority that result in a positive outcome.
→following orders of emergency personnel, citizens adhering to laws make neighbourhoods safer instilling sense of security

destructive obedience: (blind obedience to authority)
Occurs when there is compliance with orders of authority that result in a negative outcome.
→Nurses following doctors orders even though they know Doctor is mistaken

Compliance vs Obedience:

Compliance is changing one’s behaviour in response to a request but not necessarily one of an authorial figure(friends, siblings)
Obedience is changing one’s behaviour in response to a request of an authorial figure (police, parent, teacher)

leaders in groups can be in powerful positions where they have heighted social power and thus the ability to exert powerful influence over other individuals

Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies 1963

AIM: to discover whether individuals would obey an authority figure who was instructing them to inflict pain on another person

• investigated factors involved in determining obedience to an authority figure
  
  None of 40 participants stopped administering shocks before 300 volts

  obedience to authorial figure was show to the extent that ‘learner’s’ life was penitential at risk
  

Ethical considerations:
- mental wellbeing was not safeguarded,
It wasn’t clear to participants that they could entirely withdraw from the experiment and many had shown signs of mental distress

were payed money which made participants feel obligated to not end their participation
Factors affecting obedience

1. Social proximity

• closeness between two or more people

  → Milgrim’s found the closer the learner(victim) was to the teacher (person administering the shock) The more likely they were to refuse to administer the shock".

2. Legitimacy of authority figure

• individual is more likely to be obedient when the authority figure is perceived as being legitimate and having power.

3. Group pressure

• Individual is more likely to be obedient when there is little or no group support resisting the authority figure

• more likely to be obedient when there is a group support for authority figure.

Cult: A group which claims to have a great devotion to a person, idea or object

sect: A group that follows a particular set of principles, beliefs and practices which has a separate identity within a larger group or organisation (breakaway group)

deindividuation:

reduced self-consciousness, inhibition of personal responsibility that can occur when in a group or crowd.

→eg/ hysterical screaming in concert, abusing an umpire

anonymity make people feel less accountable for their actions and conform to the majority behaving in ways they otherwise would not

confederate:
Someone working for the experimenter and posing as a participant