Milgram, S. (1963)
Behavioural Study of Obedience
Case Study #2
Social Psychology
Important terms: * Obedience: The psychological mechanism which links individual action to political purpose, the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority. * GADH: The “Germans are different hypothesis” * Dispositional attribution: This is believing that a person's behaviour is caused by an individual's personality or disposition rather than the situation they are in. * Situational attribution: This explains behaviour in terms of aspects of the situation that a person is in rather than the person's internal characteristics such as personality

Background/Context:
Milgram’s study is an attempt to test ‘the Germans are different’ hypothesis. The Germans are different hypothesis states that German’s have a basic character deficit which means they have a readiness to obey people in authority regardless of the act they are being asked to carry out.
The Germans are different hypothesis is an example of a dispositional attribution as it is arguing that the cause of behaviour is believed to result from the persons own personality or characteristics.
However, Milgram set out to question this dispositional attribution of the Germans. He believed that the situation had led to the inhumane behaviour of the Nazis and therefore that anybody in the same situation as those committing such atrocities would have done the same in the same circumstances. Milgram argued that people would commit atrocities if required to do so by an authority figure. This argument is an example of a situational attribution as it is arguing that the behaviour resulted from the situation a person was in.

Aim: The aim of the experiment was to investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person.
Method: Lab experiment using controlled observation
Variables:
* Independent Variable: The prods and prompts provided by the experimenter to carry on administering shocks to the learner for wrong answers. * Dependant Variable: The degree of obedience shown; measured by how far up the shock scale the participants went
Controls:
* A rigged lottery draw was used for every participant * All participants were paid $4.50 just for showing up. * The prods and prompts used by the authority figure were the same for each participant and were used in the same order. * The same apparatus was used throughout the study.
Sample:
40 males aged between 20 to 50 years from the New Haven area. They were recruited through a newspaper advert which asked for volunteers to participate in a study of memory and learning (deception). The study took place at the formal confines of Yale University. The participants represented a wide range of professional and educational backgrounds. They were paid $4.50 for their participation.
Personnel:
* The role of the experimenter was played by a 31-year-old, Biology teacher; his manner was impassive and his appearance somewhat stern and emotionless throughout and he was dressed in a grey technician’s coat throughout. * The victim/learner (aka the stooge) was played by a 47-year-old accountant given the name of Mr. Wallace, trained for the role, whom most observers found mild-mannered and likable.
Shock Generator: * Milgram created a phony ‘shock generator’ which had 30 switches marked clearly in 15 volt increments from 15 to 450 volts. * To improve the authenticity of the shock generator written labels were also clearly indicated for groups of four switches: ‘slight shock’, ‘moderate shock’, ‘strong shock’, ‘very strong shock’, ‘intense shock’, ‘extreme intensity shock’, ‘danger: severe shock’. Two switches after this were marked XXX). * The phony generator also had buzzers, flashing lights and moving dials. Each participant was given a sample shock of 45-volts to convince them of the authenticity of the shock generator.
Procedure:
* One participant and one victim (a confederate) were used in each trial. In order to justify the administration of the electric shocks by the participant a cover story was used. A general introduction about the relation between punishment and learning was given to the participants. * The participant was asked to draw a slip of paper from a hat to determine which role he would play. The draw was rigged so the participant was always the teacher and Mr. Wallace (the confederate) was always the learner. * The teacher (participant) and learner were taken to an adjacent room and in full view of the teacher (participant) the learner was strapped into the ‘electric chair’. * The participant (teacher) was then seated in an adjacent room in front of the shock generator and asked to read a series of word pairs to the learner. The learner was asked to learn these pairs; if the answer was wrong the participant had to tell the learner the correct answer and then the level of punishment that they were going to give them. They would then press the first switch on the shock generator (15 volts). For every subsequent incorrect answer the participant was required to move one switch up the scale of shocks (15 volts higher than the voltage of the last shock delivered). * The learner/stooge would give an average of 3 wrong answers to every one that he got right. * No vocal response or other sign of protest was heard from the learner until the shock level of 300 volts was reached. At this point the learner (Mr. Wallace) pounded on the wall of the room and could be heard by the participant. * Participants were given a series of prods and prompts (by the authority figure) to keep them going when they showed signs of tension or wished to abandon the study. * A participant who breaks off at any point prior to the highest shock level (450 volts) is called a defiant participant, while one who obeys up to the 450 volts is called an obedient participant.