Aim: to investigate levels of obedience when authority figure tells them to give an electric shock. Investigate the ‘Germans are different’ hypothesis. (assumption obeyed due to blind obedience not because of who they were.
Method/Procedure: Sample of 40 men recruited from newspaper advert from new haven area. Lab based experiment.
Lots drawn at the start, creating charade for who was the teacher & the learner. Participant was always the learner. The volt machine ranged from 15v -450volts. The confederate (stooge) was taken into another room where he was strapped down with electrodes attached to his arms.
Teacher had to read the word pairs to the learner, the first word pair with 4 terms. Every time there was an incorrect answer participant, he had to give him an electric shock going up in 15v every time a wrong answer was given.
Verbal prods were used to make the teacher continue carry on shocking the student. (Standardized).
Results: Of the 40 subjects, 5 refused to go beyond the 300 volt level. 4 more subjects gave one more shock than stopped. 2 broke off at 330 volt level. 26/40 went up to the 450v (65%) 14 subjects defied the experimenter.
People showed distress while obeying when not wanting to. ‘nervous laughter’.
Continued because of verbal prods for them to continue, saw experiment to have a worthy purpose. Experimenter was professional so knew what they were doing. Forms of gradual commitment. Victim wasn’t visible while experimenter was.
Conclusion: Milgram argued that an important factor influencing behaviour is the situation a person is in. He concluded obedience was due to:
Learner viewed as other participant so they could leave. Designed to look to have a worthy purpose. Obligation by ppt not wanting to wreck experiment. Experimenter was profession so knew what they were doing.
Believed we make dispositional attributes about behaviour which are incorrect. We believe a person has behaved the way they do because of their personality when it fact it was the situation which shaped their behaviour.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| High r – control over environment as carried out in a lab, standardized procedure such as verbal prods, instructions and feedback tape – easier to repeat to test for consistency of findings.
High r – Burger found similar results A – results show we have a natural tendency to obey authority figures even when we feel it morally wrong. 65% carried on till 450v mark. – Explains horrific events such as holocaust, refutes Germans are different hypothesis and gives insight of power of a situation High internal V – high lvl of control over EV as such as script used and verbal prods – due to such control a cause and effect relation can be established. |
Low G – used 40 males, from USA, New Haven area – this is a biased & unrepresentative sample that does not reflect the general population. Cannot be generalised to German culture for aim.
Low ecological V – study took place in a lab, artificial setting as part of Yale Uni. – behaviour shown may not be natural, may not behaved as they would realistically to obedience. Low task V – required ppts to give an electric shock from 15-450v and isn’t a usual task – lacked mundane realism so we can question validity of findings and not realistic to asses obedience. Low E – psychologically damaged others by scaring them and putting them under stress. Many reflected badly to the experiment – ppts showed fear & distress showing they obeying was morally effecting them Low E – ppts were deceived about the nature of the experiment |