Milgram & Situational Variables Affecting Obedience (OCR A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes

1.2.2 Milgram & Situational Variables Affecting Obedience

Explanation for Obedience: Milgram's shock study

Aim

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person

Participants

👬40 randomly selected male volunteers

Procedure

• A participant was given the role of "teacher" and a confederate was given the role of "learner."
• The participant had to ask the confederate a series of questions.
• Whenever the confederate got the wrong answer, the participants had to give them an electric shock, even when no answer was given.
• Participants thought the shocks were real when in fact there were no real shocks administered and the confederate was acting. The shocks were demonstrated to be real before the start of the study, despite it being confederates acting.
• Participants were assessed on how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with.

Findings

• All participants went up to 300V and 65% continued to 450V.
• No participants stopped below 300V, showing that the vast majority of participants were prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate.

Situational variables affecting obedience

Proximity

(How close people are to each other)

• Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room (62.5%).
• This was reduced to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms.
• This was reduced to a further 30% when the experimenter forcibly placed the participant's hand on the electric plate.

Location

(Where the research is taking place)

• Obedience was greater in a prestigious university than in a variation of the study conducted in a rundown office.
• Individuals are more likely to obey someone in a location linked to higher status and legitimacy.
• This is because the prestigious nature of specific locations potentially increases the trust that participants place in the researchers.
• As Milgrim conducted his original research at a Laboratory within Yale University, individuals were more likely to obey due to the location being linked to a high status and authority, this is because the prestigious university environment gave Milgram's study legitimacy and authority, potentially increasing the trust participants in the researchers.
• Although, in order to test the power of the location, Milgram conducted a variation of his research in a rundown office, and found that obedience rates fell to 47.5%. This suggests that the perceived legitimacy of the authority figure was lowered due to the location as a rundown office block suggests the experimenter giving orders had less perceived authority than a researcher at a well-respected university.

Uniform

(The items of clothing worn)

• It was found that obedience increased when the experimenter wore a lab coat as opposed to normal clothes.
• Individuals are more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy.
• However, demand characteristics were particularly evident in this condition, with Milgram admitting that many participants could see through this deception.