Situational Obedience, Milgram (1963) - SOCIAL INFLUENCE Flashcards
when was Milgram’s situational obedience study
1963
what was the topic of research (Milgram, 1963)
situational explanations of obedience
what inspired Milgram’s study
“the german question” - the bad reputation all Germans had because of the way soldiers treated others throughout ww2
upset at rise in prejudice towards Germans in USA
what title from a US newspaper gained global popularity and negatively impacted all German reputation
“Germans are Evil”
aim of the study
that anyone under the same circumstances could easily be persuaded to commit immoral and harmful acts
4 key terms Milgram concluded
autonomous state, agentic state, agentic shift and legitimacy of authority
what is autonomous state
your actions are under your own control
what is agentic state
you’ve deferred responsibility to someone else
what is agentic shift
the point at which you lose sense of responsibility
what is the legitimacy of authority
the features/qualities of the person giving orders that make us obey them
what were the three roles of the study
learner, teacher and experimenter
how many confederates took part
two - played the learner and experimenter
what role did the participant ‘play’
the teacher
what did the teacher do in the study
was told to ask learner questions, if they got it wrong the teacher should electrocute them - with a higher voltage each wrong answer (they could not see learner, only hear)
what did the experimenter do in the study
mainly just pretended to observe, if asked questions/talked to could only say limited phrases
what were the measurements of voltage
15v-450v
at what voltage did the learner go quiet
300v
what percentage of participants electrocuted the learner up to 300v
100%
what percentage of participants electrocuted the learner up to 450v
65%
what percentage of participants electrocuting up to 450v did Milgram originally predict
0.01%
conclusion of the study
all you need is a convincing scenario and legitimate-looking figure of authority for people to do immoral and harmful acts
independent variable of study
the level of voltage given
dependant variable of study
compliance from participant/ level of voltage given
later variation (proximity) what changed
teacher and learner in same room
(proximity variation) what did obedience levels fall to
40% went to max voltage
(proximity variation) when required to touch electrocuting pad what were obedience levels
30%
(proximity variation) when experimenter was absent what were obedience levels
21%
later variation (location) what changed
used Yale University - gave ppts confidence
(location variation) when moved to office blocks what did rates fall to
40%
how does location affect this study
shows legitimacy of authority - if it seems legit people more likely to obey
(uniform variation) what were the different uniforms used
police, business suit and ‘tramp’
(uniform variation) what were rates of obedience to police uniform
72%
(uniform variation) what were rates of obedience to business suit
48%
(uniform variation) what were rates of obedience to ‘tramp’
52%
ethical issues of experiment
some ppts fell ill afterwards - nightmares, heart attacks and anxiety
cost/benefit analysis
important to socially sensitive research - harmed few to save many (german’s being prosecuted)
internal validity (Milgram, 1963)
lack of mundane realism and ecological validity
