Milgram's studies

to understand the behaviour of the Germans who followed orders to kill over 10 million people in the holocaust

40 men
aged 20-50 years
volunteer sample - local newspaper + letters in the post
professions varied from unskilled workers to professionals
men were offered $4.50

on arrival ppts told they could keep money and still dropout
ppts introduced to experimenter + learner
one shock of 45V given to ppt
ppt sat in front of shock machine with 30 switches from 15v to 450v
switches were labelled 'slight shock' to 'danger, severe shock'
a series of standardised prods:
- 'it is absolutely essential that you continue'
milgram also collected film footage and post-study interviews

65% of sample administered 450V shock
100% continued to 300V, and at this point 12.5% dropped out
ppts were observed to tremble, sweat and bite their nails
35% of ppts exhibited nervous laughter
3 ppts had seizures

ordinary Americans are surprisingly obedient to legitimate authority

- standardised procedures (prods)
- mundane realism (unnatural task)
- application to training pilots to challenge authority of captain

rundown office block

telephonic instructions

ordinary man gives orders

- rundown building
- ppts were told it was a private firm
- 47.5% of ppts were fully obedient
- prestigious context is an important situational factor

- experimenter gave orders on a telephone
- only 9/40 (22.5%) were fully obedient
- ppts found it easier to passively resist by not raising shock level when they said they were
- when researcher came back to the room defiant ppts became obedient
- physical presence of legitimate authority is an important situational factor

- to test how status of person giving the order effected obedience
- 2 confederates - one learner one for recording times
- experimenter receives fake phone call and leaves
- confederate recorder suggests increasing voltage by 15V each time
- 80% refused to continue
- orders must come from legitimate source