Additional Research to Investigate Obedience

HOFLING ET AL 1966:

• hospital setting, stooge doctor asked a nurse to administer double the daily dose of a drug to a patient- via the telephone
• 21/22 of the nurses followed the doctors orders (attempted)
• it suggests that hierarchy of authority in the hospital caused obedience 
• unethical because nurses were deceived
• ecologically valid because it was in a natural, real life setting
• low in mundane realism because doctors wouldn't give orders of the phone and go against the rules 

MEEUS AND RAIJMAKER 1986:

• study of obedience from another culture --> administer psychological harm e.g. insults to a confederate applying for a job at a university, lead to believe if the confederate's stress levels got too high they would fail the test
• control group: insults given at chosen times and could stop whenever
• experimental group: insults were standardised and prompted to continue 
• 22/24 were fully obedient and delivered all insults
• ^discussion with experimenter when prompted to continue 
• none of the control group delivered any insults 
• participants seemed more likely to comply with orders to deliver psychological harm than physical --> consequences not so obvious and immediate as someone in pain
• …