Obedience: Situational variables

Question 1

Situational variables

Answer 1

• After Stanley Milgram conducted his first study on obedience, he carried out a large number of variations in order to consider the situational variables that might create greater or lesser obedience.

Question 2

Proximity pt.1

Answer 2

• In Milgram’s original study, the teacher and 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. In this condition obedience rates dropped from the baseline 65% to 40%.

Question 3

Proximity pt.2

Answer 3

• In an even more dramatic 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 variation, the obedience rate dropped further to 30%.
• 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.

Question 4

Location

Answer 4

• In another kind of variation, Milgram changed the location of the obedience study. 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).
• In such a situation 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 baseline study.

Question 5

Uniform

Answer 5

• In the baseline study, the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority.
• 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’ (played by a confederate) in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat. The obedience rates dropped to 20%, the lowest of these variations.

Question 6

Evaluation- research support

Answer 6

• Other studies have demonstrated the influence of these situational variables on obedience.
• In a field experiment in NYC, Bickman has 3 confederates dress in 3 different outfits- ordinary clothes, milkman and a security guards uniform.
• The confederates stood in the street and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or giving the confederate a coin for the parking meter.
• People were twice as likely to obey the security guard than the ordinary person (suit and tie).
• This support Milgram’s conclusion that a uniform conveys the authority of its wearer and is a situational factor likely to produce obedience.

Question 7

Evaluation- lack of internal validity

Answer 7

• Orne and holland’s criticism of Milgram’s original study was that many of the participants worked out that the procedure was faked. It is even more likely that participants in Milgram’s variations realised this because of the extra manipulation.
• A good example is the variation where the experimenter is replaced by a ‘member of the public’. Even Milgram recognised that this situation was so contrived that some participants may well have worked out the truth.
• This is a limitation of all Milgram’s studies because it is unclear whether the results are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because the participants saw through the deception and acted accordingly.

Question 8

Evaluation- cross-cultural replications

Answer 8

• A general strength of Milgram’s research, that applies to his variations as well, is that his findings have been replicated in other cultures.
• The findings of cross cultural research have been generally supportive of Milgram. For example, Miranda found an obedience rate of over 90% amongst Spanish students. This suggests that Milgram’s conclusions about obedience are not limited to American male, but are valid across cultures an apply to females too.
• However, Smith and Bond make the crucial point that most replications have taken place in Western, developed societies (such as Spain and Australia). These are culturally not that different from the USA, so it would be premature to conclude that Milgram’s findings about proximity, location and uniform apply to people everywhere.

Question 9

Contradicting research (Mandel)

Answer 9

• Mandel challenges the relevance of obedience research as an explanation for real life atrocities.
• He claims that Milgram’s conclusions about situational determinants of obedience are not born out of real life events.
• On 13th July in Poland, the men of Reserve Police Battalion 101 received orders to carry out a mass killing of Jews.
• Their commanding officer made an offer to his men that anyone who didn’t feel up to the task could be found other duties.
• Despite the presence of the factors shown by Milgram to increase defiance (e.g. close proximity to their victims, and the presence of disobedient peers), only a small minority took up the offer, the majority carried out the orders without protest.