Obedience

Occurs within hierarchy – person above has right to prescribe behaviour – emphasis on power Behaviour adopted is different from authority figure Instruction explicit (told how to behave) Participant use obedience as an explanation of their behaviour Conformity Regulates behaviour among those of equal status - emphasis on acceptance Behaviour adopted is similar to peers Instruction implicit (don’t need to be told to follow group) Participants deny conformity

Milgram ‘63 40 male participants volunteered Told research was to investigate effects of punishment on learning – this was untrue ‘randomly’ assigned to role of learner or teacher (fixed) Learner = strapped to chair, electrodes to wrist Teacher = testing the learner on word pairs, administer shocks for incorrect answers

15volts (slight shock) – 450 volts (XXX) No real shocks were given!!! Found: Every participant shocked up to 300 volts ??% delivered ‘fatal’ shock!!!!

Criticisms ???

Hofling ‘86 Nurses received a call from an unknown ‘doctor’ (Hofling) Asked to administer unknown drug (harmless placebo) – twice dose as stated on bottle Found: 21/22 obeyed instructions

Criticisms ???

Sociocultural explanations We learn to obey authority We learn who has authority Milgrim found American’s and German’s equally obedient Spain, Italy, Austria, Holland – same results – human nature rather than culture to obey authority (rather like pack animals living in hierarchy – monkeys, dogs, wolves)

Agentic shift Shifting responsibility for own actions to someone else Prevents guilt – responsibility not theirs Common defence for war crimes “Just following orders”

Buffers ‘any aspect of a situation that protects people from having to confront the consequences of their actions’ (Meldrum, 2000) e.g. Milgram – teacher & learner in different rooms – more likely to shock (buffer effect) When buffer removed (same room) more likely to Disobey (refuse to shock)

Evaluation: Research changed view of destructive obedience Research suggests many of us are capable of destructive obedience Moral reasoning suspended within a hierarchy Questions ‘evilness’ of people