Obedience

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Obedience

• Obedience
• compliance of person is due to perceived
  authority of asker
• request is perceived as a command
• Milgram interested in unquestioning obedience to
  orders

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Stanley Milgrams Studies

• Basic study procedure
• teacher and learner (learner always confederate)
• watch learner being strapped into chair
• learner expresses concern over his heart
  condition

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Stanley Milgrams Studies Procedure Continued

• Teacher (S) goes to another room with
  experimenter
• Shock generator panel 15 to 450 volts, labels
  slight shock to XXX
• Teacher (S) asked by Experimenter (E) to give
  higher shocks for every mistake Learner (A) makes

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Stanley Milgrams Studies

• Learner protests more and more as shock increases
• Experimenter continues to request obedience even
  if teacher balks saying,
• The Experiment Requires that you continue.
• You have no other choice, you must continue.

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Obedience

• How many people would go to the highest shock
  level?
• Two-Thirds (26 out of 40) of the subjects went to
  the end, even those that protested
• Those that did stop, not one stopped before the
  300-volt level.

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Milgrams Obedience to Authority(Data from
Milgram, 1974)
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Obedience to Authority

• Play Obedience The Milgram Study (404)
  Segment 34 from Psychology The Human
  Experience.
• Or Click HERE to view actual video from his
  original experiment. (5 minutes)

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Explanations for Milgrams Results

• Abnormal group of subjects?
• Numerous replications with variety of groups
  shows no support
• Milgrams study has been repeated many times in
  the United States and other countries with
  identical results
• People in general are sadistic?
• videotapes of Milgrams subjects show extreme
  distress

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Explanations for Milgrams Results

• A previously well-established framework to obey
• The situation, or context, in which the obedience
  occurred (Authority of Yale and value of science)
• New situation and no model of how to behave
• The gradual, repetitive escalation of the task
• Experimenter self-assurance and acceptance of
  responsibility
• The physical and psychological separation from
  the learner

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Follow-Up Studies to Milgram
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Conditions that Decrease the Likelihood of
Destructive Obedience

• Willingness to obey diminishes sharply when the
  buffers that separate the teacher from the
  learner are lessened or removed.
• Obedience decreased when the experimenter left
  the room and spoke to the subject over the
  telephone rather than in person.
• When teachers were allowed to act as their own
  authority and freely choose the shock level, 95
  percent did not venture beyond 150 voltsthe
  first point at which the learner protested
• People were more likely to defy an authority when
  they saw others do so

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Critiques of Milgram

• Although 84 later said they were glad to have
  participated and fewer than 2 said they were
  sorry, there are still ethical issues
• Do these experiments really help us understand
  real-world atrocities?

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Were Milgrams Obedience Experiments Ethical?

• Attacked for the emotional stress, tension, and
  loss of dignity experienced by the subjects
• Milgram suggested that what was disturbing to
  people were not so much his methods but his
  results
• Follow-ups of Milgrams subjects indicate that a
  large majority were glad to have taken part in
  the experiment and had no signs of harm or
  traumatic reaction

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Does this Apply to Today?
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Asch, Milgram, and the Real World

• Being at odds with the majority or with authority
  figures is very uncomfortable for most people
• Enough so that our judgment and perceptions can
  be distorted and we may act in ways that violate
  our conscience
• Each of us does have the capacity to resist group
  or authority pressure but
• Will we do so?

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Abu Ghraib PrisonI was just following orders.