milgram Flashcards
procedure
Participants were told they were delivering electric shocks to a learner for answering questions incorrectly. The shocks ranged from 15 to 450 volts. In reality, the shocks were fake and the learner was an actor.
Results
investigation
The Milgram experiment was a social psychology study that tested how far people would go to obey authority figures, even if it meant hurting others. The experiment’s findings have had a lasting impact on psychology, but it has also been controversial and criticized on ethical grounds
results
65% of participants were willing to administer the maximum voltage level, even when the learner was screaming in pain.
criticism
The experiment has been criticized for ethical and scientific reasons. Some say that participants were coerced into obeying and that the study placed them in stressful situations where they had difficulty withdrawing. Others say that the study’s findings call into question its validity.
impact
The experiment demonstrated the power of social situations and authority figures to create obedience.
location results
Obedience levels were lower when the experiment was conducted in a run-down building in Bridgeport, Connecticut, compared to the original study at Yale University.
dropped from 65% to 47.5%
proximity to authority
When the researcher instructed participants from another room via telephone, obedience dropped to 23%.
presence of authority
When two experimenters were in the room, one telling participants to continue and the other to stop, participants stopped shocking early.
presence of another participant.
When a second “teacher” was in the room and instructed to obey, all participants went along and shocked up to 450 volts
proximity to consequence
In this variation the percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts dropped from 65% to 40%
uniform
In most of Milgram’s variations the experimenter wore a lab coat, indicating his status as a University Professor. Milgram examined the power of uniform in a variation where the experimenter was called away and replaced by another ‘participant’ in ordinary clothes, who was in fact another confederate. In this variation, the man in ordinary clothes came up with the idea of increasing the voltage every time the leaner made a mistake. The percentage of participants who administered the full 450 volts when being instructed by an ordinary man, dropped from 65% to 20%, demonstrating the dramatic power of uniform.
links to bickman (1974) who also investigated the power of uniform in a field experiment conducted in New York. Bickman used three male actors: one dressed as a milkman; one dressed as a security guard; and one dressed in ordinary clothes
legitimacy of authority
location
uniform
