Odedience Core Study: Bickman (1974) + critisims Flashcards
What is the procedure of Bickmans (core) study?
He carried out a field experiment by manipulating the appearance of 3 male experimenters who gave orders to153 randomly occurring pedestrians on a street in New York. They took turn each dressed as a civilian, milkman and guard closely resembling that of a police mans (actions due to uniform not individual). In each different dress they gave one of the following orders, ‘pick up this bag (litter)for me’, ‘this man is overparked at the meter but doesn’t have any change give him a dime’, (bus stop) ‘you have to stand on the other side of the pole, this sign says “no standing”’.
What is the beliefs?
The appearance of a person giving the orders effects our level of obedience.
What are the results of Bickmans (core) study?
People were nearly 3 times more likely to obey a ‘guard’ than a ‘civilian’. In the coin scenario 87% obeyed the guard, 57% obeyed the milkman and only 33% obeyed the civilian.
What was Bickmans conclusion?
That dress alone can suggest authority and when people think someone has the power to punish them, they are more likely to obey.
Because it was a field experiment there was a lack of….?
There was a lack of control over extraneous variables. Eg street variables such as crowding, noise, weather, etc.
Pedestrians were selected by…..?
Pedestrians were selected by opportunity sampling. There was no prior knowledge of the personality circumstance of each participant. Eg might be in a hurry, depressed or absent-minded.
The study was un……?
The study was unethical. It wasn’t possible to get consent and couldn’t be debriefed afterwards. Distress/ embarrassment may be caused.
All the experimenters were….?
All the experimenters were male. Gender biased, more inclined to take orders from men than woman- can’t be generalised.
The study was only carried….?
The study was only carried out in one city, one country. Evidence culture effects obedience, can’t be generalised, culturally biased.
