T3: Lecture 8

Question 1

What did Milgin study look at?

Answer 1

• Wanted to test idea of following orders
• The participant was the ‘teacher’ and the experimenter was the ‘student’
• Instructed to shock the student when the answered something incorrect

Question 2

Why did 65% of ‘teachers’ go to very high voltage?

Answer 2

1. Responsibility transferred to experimenter (authority figure)
2. Participants start with small punishments->greater ones
3. Social identity-people identify with experiment/experimenter rather than the learner
4. Experimenters directness, legitimacy, and consistency

Question 3

What factors influence obedience?

Answer 3

1. Remoteness of victim
2. Closeness and legitimacy of the authority figure (experimenter)
3. Diffusion of responsibility
4. Characteristics of teacher

Question 4

How does remoteness of victim influence obedience?

Answer 4

• Obedience greatest when learner out of sight
• Teacher and learner in the same room, obedience decreases to 40%
• Teacher making contact to enforce pain, conformity decreases 30%

-KEY: Closer/more contact with learner->decreased obedience

Question 5

How does closeness and legitimacy of authority figure influence obedience?

Answer 5

-KEY: Obedience highest when authority figure is close by/perceived to be legit

• Experimenter leaves the room, giving orders via phone, ordinary participant gives instructions->obedience decreases to 20%
• Experiment calls stop, learner wants to continue->obedience decreases to 0%
• 2 experimenters argue->obedience decreases to 0%

Question 6

How does diffusion of authority influence obedience?

Answer 6

• Another person delivered shock, real participant performed a lesser role->conformity increased to 93%
• Made to feel fully responsible/shock relatives->conformity decreases to 0%
• Teachers tests in groups, others stop->obedience decreases to 10%

Question 7

How do teacher characteristics influence obedience?

Answer 7

• Women obey the same as men, but will often feel worse
• Authoritarians more likely to obey

KEY: if people identify with the victim, they are less likely to obey

Question 8

Have the findings of new studies been consistent with Milgrams?

Answer 8

Yes

Question 9

What is the interpretation of the study findings?

Answer 9

• KEY: people do not blindly follow orders

- People hard because they believe in, listen to appeals of malicious authoritarians

Question 10

What did Reicher and Haslam look at?

Answer 10

• Looked at giving different prompts to continue shocking/the experiment. Only one of the prompts was a direct order
• KEY: direct order breaks trust between teacher/experimenter, and when given the order they don’t obey (strong evidence against idea of blind obedience)

Question 11

Overall

Answer 11

• People look to others they trust and identify with to see how to act
• People will follow orders but only if they believe what they are doing and respect the authority