Situational variables in obedience

Question 1

What were the three variations in Milgram’s study?

Answer 1

Location
Proximity
Uniform

Question 2

Describe Milgram’s location variation.

Answer 2

The study was repeated in a rundown office building in Bridgeport, Connecticut as opposed to the prestigious Yale university.

Obedience dropped from 65% to 47.5%.

Question 3

Explain why location affects obedience.

Answer 3

Prestigious university gives the experiment legitimacy and authority which extends to the experimenter.

Question 4

Describe the proximity variation(s).

Answer 4

Teacher and learner in the same room: obedience dropped to 40%.

Touch proximity variation: obedience dropped to 30%.

Remote instruction variation: obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 5

Explain why proximity impacts obedience.

Answer 5

The increased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their behaviour.

Question 6

Describe the uniform variation.

Answer 6

Experimenter was replaced by another ‘participant’ (confederate) dressed in everyday, ordinary clothing.

Obedience fell to 20%

Question 7

Explain why uniform influences the extent to which we obey.

Answer 7

Uniform encourages obedience as it is a widely recognised symbol of authority.

People without uniform have less right to expect obedience.

Question 8

Evaluation points.

Answer 8

+ Research support for uniform. Brickman - participants twice as likely to obey security guard.

• Orne and Holland: demand characteristics even more likely due to extra manipulation of variables.

+ Cross cultural replication: Meeus and Raaijmakers - ppts said stressful things to confederates in a job interview: 90% obeyed (Dutch). Proximity findings also replicated.

• Only 2 replications in non western countries between 1968-85 (India and Jordan) - Bond and Smith