Factors affecting obedience - situational and cultural factors (SP)

Question 1

Evaluate the strength of power distance index (with supportive evidence)

Answer 1

I - Cultural dimensions do correlate with obedience. A strength of cultural explanations is a close relationship between obedience and Hofstede’s cultural dimension (PDI).
J - For example, Kilham and Mann (1974) found a strikingly low level of obedience of 28% in Australia. which scores very low for power distance (36%) while a very recent replication in Poland by Dolinski et al. (2017) found a very high level of obedience of 90% as one might expect in a country with a much higher power distance score of 68%.
E - This suggests that Hofstede’s power distance dimension is useful in predicting obedience.

Question 2

Evaluate the weakness of cultural factors (with contradictory evidence)

Answer 2

I - Most nations around the world show similar high levels of obedience.
J - Blass (2012) found an average of 65.94% obedience across other countries, compared with 60.94% for the US replications. These countries varied in terms of their collectivism and individualism levels, but the average obedience levels were quite similar.
E - Therefore, we can conclude that perhaps obedience is in fact a universal social behaviour and culture doesn’t affect it much