1.5 Obedience - Situational Variables

1.5 Obedience - Situational Variables

1. After Stanley Milgram conducted his first study on obedience, he carried out variations in order to consider the situational variables that might lead to more or less obedience.

2. Proximity

   • In his baseline study, teacher could hear the learner but not see him. In the proximity variation, teacher and learner were in the same room.
     • Obedience level dropped to 40%.
     • Touch proxmity
       • Teacher forced the learners hand onto an 'electroshock plate'. Obedience dropped to 30%
     • Remote instruction
       • Experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by a telephone. Obedience further reduced to 20.5%. Also frequently pretended to give shocks.
   • Decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions. When they were physically separated as in the baseline experiment the teacher was less aware of what they were doing.

3. Location

   • Conducted a variation in a run down office block rather than in Yale University
     • Obedience fell to 47.5%
   • Prestigious university environment gave Milgram's study legitimacy and authority. Participants were more obedient there as they thought obedience was expected.

4. Uniform

   • In the baseline experiment the experimenter wore a lab coat as a symbol of authority. In the variation, the experimenter was called away and replaced by an 'ordinary member of the public' in everyday clothes.
     • Obedience rate dropped to 20%
   • Uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognised symbols of authority

5. Evaluation

   • Strengths
     • Research Support
       • Field experiment in NYC. Leonard Bickman (1974) had 3 confederates dress in different outfits: jacket and tie, milkman outfit, security guards uniform. Found that people were most likely to obey the orders of someone in uniform rather than someone in a suit and tie.
     • Cross cultural replications
       • Meeus and Raaijmakers (1986) used more realistic procedure to study Dutch obedience. Participants were ordered to say stressful things in an interview to a confederate desperate for a job. 90% obeyed. Also replicated using proximity.
         • Suggests that Milgrams findings cant only be generalised to American males
   • Weaknesses
     • Replications arent 'cross cultural'
       • Smith and Bond (1998) identified only two replications between 1968 and 1985 took place in a non-western country.
         • May not be appropriate to conclude that Milgram's findings apply to people of all cultures.
     • Low internal validity
       • Participants may have been aware that the experiment was faked.
         • Orne and Holland (1968) pointed out that it is even more likely in his variations because of the extra variables. E.G where the experimenter is replaced with someone from the public was very obviously contrived.
           • Not obvious whether findings were genuine or due to participants seeing through the deception.