Social Influence : Milgram Flashcards
What is Obedience?
A form of social influence in which a person complies with an instruction/order delivered by an authority figure.
What is Destructive Obedience?
Obeying an order which will have negative outcomes.
Outline the Milgram Procedure.
> Participants were told they would be randomly allocated to take the role of ‘the teacher’. This role requires administering increasingly strong shocks (15-450 volts) to another participant who took on the role of ‘the learner’.
Although participants were told they would be randomly allocated to the tole of the teacher or learner, they were actually always teacher and the learner, played by a confederate pretended to be electrocuted.
Throughout the procedure, the participants were accompanied by an experimenter who delivered instructions to encourage the participants to continue. (Eg ‘ the experiment requires that you continue’)
Milgram found that every participant continued to shock the learner up to 300 volts (only 12.5% stopped)< with 65% of participants showing full obedience and shocking maximum 450 volts.
What Conclusions did Milgram make?
Milgram concluded that destructive obedience is well within the behavioural repertoire of most people — meaning it is a normal behaviour.
