Obedience - Situational Variables

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Proximity:

In the original study the teacher and the learner were in adjoining rooms so the teacher could hear the learner but not see him

In the proximity variation, they were in the same room

When the learner and teacher were in the same room, obedience dropped 65% to 40%

In another variation the teacher was instructed to put the learner's hand onto an electroshock plate if they got the answer wrong

In this touch proximity variation, obedience dropped to 30%

In a third proximity variation the experimenter left the room and gave commands over a telephone

In this remote instruction variation obedience was further reduced to 20.5% with some participants pretending to give shocks/giving weaker ones than instructed

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Location:

The original study was conducted in Yale University

In the location variation, it was conducted in a run down building. In this situation the experimenter had less authority

When performed in a run down building obedience fell from 65% to 47.%

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Uniform:

In the original study the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority

Milgram carried out a variation in which the experimenter was called away for a phone call and was replaced by a confederate wearing everyday clothes

In this variation obedience dropped to 20%, the lowest of all variations

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Evaluation:

Other studies have shown demonstrated the influence of these situational variables on obedience. In a field experiment, Bickman had three confederates dress in 3 different outfits - jacket and tie, milkman's outfit and a security guards uniform. The confederates stood in the street and asked passers by to pick up litter. People were twice as likely to obey the person dressed as a security guard than a person in a jacket and tie, showing that a uniform conveys the authority of its wearer and is likely to produce obedience

One criticism is that many participants worked out that the procedure was faked. This makes it unclear whether the results are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because the participants saw through the deception and acted accordingly

A strength is that Milgram's experiment has been repeated many in other cultures and produced the same results. However most replications have been done in western societies (Spain, Australia) which are not that culturally different from the USA so these findings may not apply everywhere