Bocchiaro et al.'s experiment into obedience towards injust authority

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Aims

Aims:

  • To investigate the accuracy of people's estimates to obedience, disobedience and whistleblowing in this situation.
  • To investigate the role of dispositional factors in obedience, disobedience and whistleblowing. 
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Method

Pilot Studies:

  • 8 Pilot studies were carried out.
  • They involve 92 participants.
  • The procedure was carried out to make sure it was credible and ethically acceptable.
  • It was found that the procedure was both believable and ethical.
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Method

Participants:

  • 149 participants took part in the study.
  • They were all undergraduates from the UV uiversity in Amsterdam.
  • It was a volunteer sample - they were recruited from flyers in the cafeteria.
  • 138 students were surveyed bout what they believe they would do in the experimental situation.
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Method

Design and Proceure:

  • The main study was carried out in lab conditions.
  • Participnats were paid 7 euros and were iven course credits.
  • They were met by a stern experimenter who told them they were carrying out research into sensory deprivation.
  • Each participant was instructed to write a statement to convince other students to take part in the procedure.
  • The participants were left alone to compose a statement.
  • If a participant believed it was unethical they could complete a form and mailing it.
  • Obedience/Disobedience was measured by whether they completed the form and whistleblowing was measured by whether they completed the form.
  • After 7 minutes participants were given a set of dispositional measures:
  • The Haxaco personality test
  • The decomposed games measure of social values.
  • Religiosity 
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Results

Results:

  • Only 3.6% believed they would obey.
  • 64.5% believed they would whistleblow
  • 31.9% believed they would whistleblow
  • 18.8% estimatedto obey
  • 43.9% estimated to disobey
  • 37.3% estimated to whistleblow
  • 76.5% obeyed
  • 14.1% disobeyed
  • 9.4% whistleblew
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Conclusions

Conclusions: 

  • People are very obedient and whistleblowing is uncommon
  • People overestimate the tendency to blow the whistle and underestimate the tendency to obey
  • There is little to no evidence to suggest that dispositional factors affect obedience
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