1.1.2 milgram's variations

Question 1

What was the aim of Milgram’s variations?

Answer 1

to investigate situational factors which encourage or discourage dissent

Question 2

new baseline (experiment 5)

Answer 2

In the new procedure, the learner mentioned he had a ‘mild heart condition’ before the study and the teacher (real pp) could hear the learner’s response (but these were pre-recorded)

Findings - 65% of pps were fully obedient (same and earlier)

Question 3

Milgrams Experiment 10

Answer 3

Aim - to test the effect of the prestigious university setting, milgram moved the study to a rundown building in an industrial city

Procedure - The procedure that was carried out in the original study was replicated exactly

Findings - 47.5% were fully obedient. Interviews showed that the pps voiced doubts about the legitimacy of the research

Conclusion - situational factors are important. the shabby setting reduced the legitimacy of the experimenter (but the link to ‘science’ was enough to encourage relatively high obedience)

Rundown office block

Question 4

Milgram experiment 7

Answer 4

Aim - To investigate level of obedience when the experimenter isn’t present due to giving instructions over a phone

Sample - 40 pps

Procedure - the experiment only gave orders over the phone

Findings - 9 out of 40 (22.5%) pps were fully obedient. some said over the phone that they were raising the shock level but they weren’t, some repeatedly gave the lowest shock. defiant pps became obedient again when the experiment returned

Conclusion - physical presence of the authority figure is an important situational factor that affects obedience

Telephonic instructions

Question 5

Milgram experiment 13

Answer 5

Aim - To investigate whether people will obey an order due to the strength of the command itself or due to the status of the person giving the order

Sample - 20 pps

Procedure -
- two confederates, the learner and a ‘confederate recorder’ (ordinary man) to record times from a clock

• during the learning task, the experimenter receives a fake phone call, asks the pp and the confederate recorder to get the learner to learn all the word pairs, then leave
• recorder enthusiastically insists on giving increasing shocks after every mistake

Findings - 80% (16/20) of pps refused to continue when the ‘ordinary man’ (recorder) gave orders to shock the learner

Conclusions - orders must come from a legitimate source to be effective, an important situational factor

‘Ordinary Man’