Situational Variable AO3 Flashcards
Research to support situational variables affecting obedience.
*Conducted by Bickman in NY
*Got confederate in 3 different outfits to tell passer-byers to pay for parking or pick litter
*Participants were twice as likely to obey security guard than businessman.
*Therefore supporting power of uniform because participants were more likely to follow orders
One limitation in experiment
*Milgram’s sample was only males- gender bias, therefore findings can’t be generalised to females because they may have obeyed differently
*For eg, Sheridan and King found that when told to shock a puppy 100% of females obeyed
Research to NOT support (A/A*)
*Mandel (1998) doesn’t agree with proximity as a situational variable affecting obedience because mass killing of Jews was conducted in close proximity.
*Also, Milgram states that obedience increases due to presence of uniform, Mandel argues that, that offers an excuse for evil behaviour.
*In his opinion its offensive to survivors to suggest that the Nazis were simply just obeying orders and were victims too
