Transcript Obedience and Conformity - Web Hosting at UMass Amherst

Obedience and Conformity
• Rock musician, Peter Gabriel, showed his
admiration for Stanley Milgram in his
album, "So," (1986), which includes a
piece titled, "We do what we're toldMilgram's 37."
• What does the "37" refer to?
Obedience and Conformity
• Milgram – writing exercise
Summary of Milgram Studies
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Teacher does not deliver shock, but helped out.
Victim pounds on wall then becomes silent
Victim heard protesting (movie version)
Victim in same room
Teacher has to put victim's hand on shock plate
Victim says at outset that he will do study
only if he is let out when he wants to be
• Study done in Bridgeport, CT
(film version)
• Experimenter in remote location
• Teacher told to select the level of shock
(experimenter legitimizes all levels)
% Obeying
93%
65%
50%
40%
30%
40%
48%
19%
3%
Milgram’s 37
• Experiment 18 “A peer administers
shocks” in Milgram’s book Obedience to
authority: An experimental view (pp. 121122).
Personalizing the victim
• Markedly reduces obedience
Gender
• Are men or women more obedient in
Milgram’s paradigm? Or are they equally
obedient?
Other replications
Hofling et al. (1966)
• Unknown doctor called nurses and asked
them to administer 20 milligrams of the
drug "Astroten" to a patient on the ward.
Violated hospital policy.
• Results?
How well can people predict their
own obedience?
• The researchers told a group of nurses
and nursing students about the study and
asked them how they would react.
• Results?
Another replication
Sheridan & King (1972)
• Replicated Milgram exactly, except that (a)
participants were male & female college
students, (b) victim was a "cute, fluffy, puppy,"
and (c) the shocks were real.
• Participants instructed to deliver a shock each
time the puppy failed to learn a discrimination
task, which was actually unsolvable
• Results?
Would Milgram find less obedience if he
conducted his experiments today?
• Thomas Blass
– Examined Milgram studies and replications
during a 25-year period from 1961 to 1985.
Correlated year of publication and the amount
of obedience.
– Results?
Relevance of the FAE
• How is the fundamental attribution error
relevant to Milgram’s research?
Historical insights
• How might Milgram’s research offer
insights into historical events such as the
Holocaust and the My Lai massacre?
Conformity
• Conformity: A change in one’s
behavior due to the real or imagined
influence of other people.
• Unlike obedience, conformity does not
require commands or coercion by an
authority.
Asch studies of conformity
• Solomon Asch line judgment studies
– What were the findings?
• What was the role of…
– Public versus private conformity?
– Unanimity of the group?
– Normative influence? (don’t want to look silly)
Private vs. Public conformity
• Private conformity: change of beliefs that
occurs when a person privately accepts the
position taken by others.
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• Public conformity: superficial change in
overt behavior, without a corresponding
change of opinion, produced by real or
imagined group pressure.
Obedience and Conformity in
Everyday Life
• Candid Camera Video (For each episode, think about
why people might be conforming and what kinds of
social influence strategies might be operating.)
• Face the Rear: Why are people conforming?
• Influence tactics for sharing ice cream: What kinds of
social influence strategies are being used?
• Picketing against everything with nothing:
• Don’t walk on the black squares:
• Don’t Eat Light:
• Delaware closed today:
Who is most likely to conform?
• Adolescents
• Women are slightly more likely than men,
but the difference is very small and
depends on the specific type of situation.
• Cultures valuing interpersonal harmony
(e.g., some cultures in Asia, Africa, and
South America)
Age and Conformity
• Adolescents are most likely to conform.
• Berndt (1979): Students in grades 3, 6, 9, and
12 reported on how they would react if their
friends tried to get them to see a movie, help a
new kid on the block, cheat on a test, soap
windows on Halloween, or do other things.
Conformity increases from 3 to 6th and peaks at
9th grade. A little lower by 11-12th grade (but
not much)
Gender and conformity
• Gender: Might think women would be
more easily influenced than men. But it
turns out that whether gender differences
occur depends on how comfortable
men OR women are with the task.
• Sistrunk & McDavid (1971)
• Quasi-IV: male vs. female participants
• IV: Questions about stereotypically
masculine, feminine, or neutral topics
• DV: Percent agreeing with “majority”
response
• Results?
Compliance
• Mindlessness/Automatic Pilot
• Langer & colleagues (1978):
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IV: How phrased request:
– Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the xerox machine? (No
reason)
– ....because I’m in a rush. (real reason)
– ...because I have to make some copies (illusion of a reason)
• DV: Percent agreeing to request
• Results?
No reason
Real reason
Illusion of a reason
Compliance
• Regan (1971) Norm of reciprocity
• IV: Confederate acts likable or
dislikable
• IV: Confederate buys P a Coke without
being asked OR does not buy P a Coke
OR E buys P a Coke
• DV: Whether or not Ps buy raffle tickets
and amount spent on them
• Results?