Obedience: Situational variables Flashcards
Who studied situational variables?
Milgram
What were the 3 situational variables?
Proximity
Location
Uniform
How was the proximity variation different from the original experiment?
In Milgram’s original study, the teacher and the learner were in adjoining rooms, so the teacher could hear the learner but not see him. In the proximity variation, they were in the same room.
How did the obedience rate change in the proximity variation compared to the original study?
The obedience rate dropped from the baseline 65% to 40%.
What happened in an even more dramatic proximity variation?
The teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto an ‘electroshock plate’ when he refused to answer a question. In this touch proximity condition, the obedience rate dropped further to 30%.
What happened in a 3rd proximity variation?
The experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone. In this remote instruction condition time proximity was reduced. The outcome was a further reduction in obedience to 20.5%. The participants also frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones than they were ordered to.
How did Milgram change the location?
He conducted a variation of the study in a run-down building rather than the prestigious university setting where it was originally conducted (Yale University)
How did obedience change when the location was different?
The experimenter had less authority.
Obedience fell to 47.5%. This is still quite a high level of obedience but it is less than the original 65% in the original baseline study.
How did Milgram change the uniform?
In the original baseline study, the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority (a kind of uniform). Milgram carried out a variation in which the experimenter was called away because of an inconvenient telephone call right at the start of the procedure. The role of the experimenter was taken over by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ (a confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat.
How did uniform affect obedience rates?
The obedience rate dropped to 20%, the lowest of these variations.
