1

BEHAVIORAL STUDY OF

OBEDIENCEStanley Milgram (1963), Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology

67: 371–378.

2

Obedience is a basic element in the structure of social life

Some system of authority is a requirement of living in a community, and it’s only the isolated person who isn’t forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of others

3

Obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose

Obedience binds people to systems of authority

Recent history and observation in daily life suggest that for may persons, obedience may be a deeply ingrained behavioral tendency, overriding even ethics, sympathy, and moral conduct

4

Still, obedience serves many productive functions

Society is predicated on its existence Obedience may be ennobling, educative,

and refer to acts of charity and kindness, as well as to destruction

5

General Procedure

A naïve subject is ordered to administer increasingly more intense electric shocks to a victim in the context of a “learning experiment” (ostensibly to study effects of punishment on memory)

A simulated shock generator is used, with 30 clearly marked voltage levels, from 15 to 450 volts

Labeled Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock Responses of victim, a confederate, are standardized Internal resistances become stronger, and at a certain point the

subject refuses to continue Behavior prior to the rupture is considered “obedience” The point of rupture is the act of disobedience A quantitative value is assigned to the subject’s performance based on the

maximum intensity shock he is willing to administer

6

Crux of study is to systematically vary the factors believed to alter the degree of obedience

One may vary: Aspects of the source of command Content and form of command Instrumentalities for its execution Target object General social setting And more

7

Method: Subjects 40 males between ages of 20 and 50 from New Haven and

surrounding communities Subjects responded to a newspaper ad and direct mail

solicitation and believed they were to participate in a study of memory and learning at Yale University

A wide range of occupations and education levels is represented

Subjects were paid $4.50 for participation, but told that payment was simply for coming and that the money was theirs no matter what happened after they arrived

8

Method – Personnel and Locale Experiment was conducted on grounds of Yale

University Role of experimenter was played by a 31-yr old

high school biology teacher Manner was impassive and appearance stern Dressed in grey lab coat

Victim played by a 47-yr old accountant trained for the role Irish American, found to be mild-mannered and likable

9

Method - Procedure Cover story Learning task Shock generator Sample shock Shock instructions Preliminary and regular run Feedback from victim Experimenter feedback

10

Method – Dependent Measures Primary dependent measure for any subject

is the maximum shock he administers before he refuses to go further May vary from 0 to 30 Subject who breaks off experiment at any point

prior to administering the Level 30 shock is termed a defiant subject

11

Results Subjects accept situation Signs of extreme tension Distribution of scores

Each of 40 subjects went beyond expected breakoff point No subject stopped prior to Shock Level 20 Of 40 subjects, 5 refused to obey commands beyond 300-

volts (Shock Level 20) A total of 14 subjects defied the experimenter 26 subjects obeyed orders to the end