**L6 - Situational Variables affecting Obedience

Question 1

how did Milgram investigate situational variables’ effect on obedience?

Answer 1

MILGRAM conducted SEVERAL VARIATIONS of his original study - he wanted to determine which SITUATIONAL VARIABLES lead to HIGH LEVELS OF OBEDIENCE and which LED TO REDUCED OBEDIENCE

Question 2

what was the proximity variation?

Answer 2

in the PROXIMITY VARIATION both the teacher were in the SAME ROOM - obedience LEVELS FELL to 40% as the teacher was now able to EXPERIENCE MR WALLACE’S PAIN DIRECTLY

another variation known as the TOUCH PROXIMITY VARIATION had the teacher actually FORCE THE LEARNER’S ARMS DOWN ONTO A METAL PLATE to administer the shocks - the obedience rate was 30%

in the ABSENT EXPERIMENTER VARIATION the experimenter LEFT THE ROOM AFTER GIVING HIS INSTRUCTIONS and gave subsequent orders by TELEPHONE, the obedience rate was MUCH LOWER at 21%

Question 3

what was the LOCATION variation?

Answer 3

in the ALTERNATIVE SETTING VARIATION the experiment was carried out in a RUNDOWN OFFICE in downtown Bridgeport Connecticut by an experimenter wearing CASUAL CLOTHES. All the other variations were carried out at the PRESTIGIOUS YALE UNIVERSITY - the obedience rate was 48%

The pps reported the LOCATION OF YALE UNIVERSITY gave them CONFIDENCE IN THE INTEGRITY OF THE EXPERIMENTER - the LOWER STATUS of the rundown office changed pps PERCEPTION OF THE LEGITIMACY OF THE AUTHORITY of the experimenter. Experimenter had a higher authority at Yale uni, than in the rundown office which LED TO HIGHER OBEDIENCE RATES

Question 4

what was the UNIFORM variation?

Answer 4

• uniforms have a POWERFUL IMPACT on obedience, uniforms are VISIBLE SYMPTOMS OF AUTHORITY, sometimes uniforms indicate that someone has POWER AND STATUS (police uniform) however on other occasions they can show the opposite (prisoners uniform)

BICKMAN’S STUDY - BICKMAN asked confederates to ORDER PEDESTRIANS passing by to PICK SOME LITTER OFF THE STREET or MOVE AWAY FROM A BUS STOP - the confederates were dressed as either a GUARD, MILKMAN or just in CASUAL CLOTHES

90% of people OBEYED THE GUARD, only 50% OBEYED THE CIVILIANS, a person in GUARD UNIFORM WAS MORE LIKELY TO BE OBEYED