MILGRAM

Background:

-Influenced by the events of WW2.

-His studies began in 1961, the same time as the trial of Adolf Eichmann (the man who played the main role in the construction of concentration camps) who was described as “banality of evil”, meaning he just followed orders without thinking about it.

What is obedience?

-Compliance with the requests of others.

-Compliance is often linker with perceived authority of the asker.

-Aim was to see if people would give electric shocks to another person.

-Conducted at Yale.

-40 participants.

-Participants were deceived as they were told the study was on punishment.

-The other people the participants were told were involved in the experiment (leaner/experimenter) were confederates.

-The learner confederate complained about heart problems at the beginning.

-The participants were told to conduct a ‘fake’ word-pair task with the learner.

-Before they conducted the task they were given a real 40V shock to show what it would feel like to the learner.

-They were instructed to give a shock when the leaner answered the question wrong (they didn’t know that this shock was fake, and the confederate always answered wrong).

-The intensity of the shocks increased. The confederate began complaining of pain as they increase. The confederate eventually went silent to give the impression that he was unconscious.

-Participants became very uncomfortable, one had a seizure.

-They continued when they were told they wouldn’t be held responsible.

-They were actively continued to continue and when asked to leave they were told by the experimenter that they had to stay. They could only leave after the experimenter has given all their 4 prompts.

-Most participants were incredibly happy to find out they hadn’t killed the learner.

-It was estimated prior to the experiment that only 1-2% of participants would continue to the highest electrical shock, as it was deemed sadistic.

-65% went to the highest shock.

-All went to 300 volts.

-Nobody insisted that the research should be terminated.

Variables possibly affecting results:

-Prestigious setting.

-Had made a commitment to finish.

-Payment in advance (guilt).

-Believed role was random.

-Told shocks weren’t harmful.

-Completely novel situation (people will do unpleasant things in new situations).

-May have known it was fake.

Ethics:

-Violated a lot of the ethics but was still given permission by the APA.

Present Day:

It’s argued that the events that influenced Milgram’s study are outdated. However, recent studies show that this isn’t the case:

-A striip search prank call scam (1995-2004), there were 70 occurrences reported in 30 states of USA.

-A man called fast-food restaurants pretending to be a cop and convinced managers to *****-search female employees.

The study was recreated with different variables:

-Different room. (Highest percentage)

-Being in the same room as the learner.

-They were forced to push the shock.

-Orders given by phone.

-Ordinary man orders the shocks.

-Participants see 2 teachers rebel.

-They chose the shock level. (Lowest percentage)

(All of the percentages dropped compared to the original study).

-Hofling-had an unknown doctor ask nursed to give a lethal dose of a drug to a patient. 95% were prepared to give it.

-Sheridan and King-replicated the study but with a dog and the shocks were real. About the same amount of percentage of participants gave the shocks despite being able to see the dog. They dog was even made unconscious and people still gave the shocks.