Social: Factors Affecting Obedience Flashcards
Factors affecting dissent?
- Situational factors
- Personality
- Gender
- Culture
Situational factors affecting dissent?
- Momentum of compliance
- Proximity
- Status of authority
- Personal responsibility
Momentum of compliance?
Started with small requests, P committed to experiment. More likely to comply as requests increase as P feels duty-bound to continue.
Proximity affect dissent?
The closer the authority figure, the higher the obedience. Distance = buffer to obed: teacher in room with learner, obed dropped.
Status of authority affect dissent?
Obedience can only be established when the authority figure was perceived to be legitimate (shown during experiments at Yale Uni where obedience was higher than experiments at a broken-down office block or conducted by an ordinary man).
People are less likely to be obedient when they don’t believe that the person giving the order has legitimate authority.
How does personal responsibility affect dissent?
P’s could be more obedient in a situation when personal responsibility is removed and placed onto an authority figure.
In a variation of Milgram’s study, P’s had to sign a waiver saying they’re taking part out of their own free will and relinquishing any legal responsibility from Yale Uni, obedience fell to 40%.
What individual differences affect dissent?
- Personality
- Locus of control
- Authoritarian personality
- Empathy
- Gender
- Culture
How does personality affect dissent?
Milgram follow up study with 118 P’s from variations 1-4. Asked to judge the relative responsibility for giving the shocks out of the experimenter, learner and teacher. To show this, they moved 3 hands on a disc to show proportionate responsibility.
Found:
- 48% dissenting P’s blamed themselves.
- 39% dissenting P’s blamed experimenter.
- 25% compliant P’s blamed learner.
- 12% dissenting P’s blamed learner.
How does locus of control affect dissent?
Rotters (1966) LOC personality theory found states:
- Internal LOC believes they’re responsible for their actions and are less influenced by others.
- External LOC believes their behaviour is out of their control due to external factors such as fate - more easily influenced by those around them.
However, research in this area is mixed and only provides tentative evidence.
How does LOC link to Milgram’s findings?
Those who were obedient had an external LOC as they were likely to be influenced by the experimenter and didn’t feel responsible for their actions. But, those who dissented were more resistant to authority and were more likely to take personal responsibility for their actions (internal LOC).
How does authoritarian personality affect dissent?
AP typically means people are submissive to authority but harsh to those who seem subordinate to themselves.
What study’s provide evidence for AP?
Milgram and Elms (1966): compared F-scale scores of 20 obedient and 20 dissenting P’s involved in his experiment. Found obedient P’s had higher F-scale scores than dissenters.
How does empathy affect dissent?
People with high levels of empathy would be less likely to harm another person at the instructions of an authority figure.
Burger (2009) found that people who score high on tests of empathy were more likely to protest against giving electric shocks (but did not translate into lower obedience scores).
How does gender affect dissent?
Milgram’s experiment 8 involved 40 female teachers. He found that women were virtually identical to men in their levels of obedience (65%), 27.5% breaking off at the 300-volt level. Females experienced higher levels of anxiety.
What studies support gender affecting dissent?
Sheridan and King (1972): Involve a live puppy as a victim which received genuine shocks.
- All 13 female P’s were more compliant and delivered the maximum levels of shock to the puppy compared to men.
