Transcript Obedience to Authority

Obedience to Authority
What Makes People Obey
Authority?
Why do you do what I tell you to do?
 Who else do you obey?
 Why?
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Nazi Germany
Stanley Milgram - Background
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Parents were Jews in WW2
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Wanted to test the “Germans are
Different Hypothesis”
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Do the Germans have a basic character
defect, which causes them to obey
authority?
Milgram’s Study
A laboratory experiment which took
place at Yale University
Milgram’s Experiment
3 PEOPLE :
 THE EXPERIMENTER
LAB COAT AS A SYMBOL OF AUTHORITY
 TEACHER
NAÏVE PARTICIPANT
 LEARNER
CONFEDERATE
PARTICIPANTS
RECRUITED VIA NEWSPAPER
ADVERTISMENT
 INFORMED STUDY WAS ABOUT MEMORY
AND LEARNING AND EFFECTS OF
PUNISHMENT ON LEARNING
 EXPENSES AND A FEE PAID
 40 MALES
 WIDE VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS
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EXPERIMENTER
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31 yr old BIOLOGY TEACHER
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IMPASSIVE MANNER
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STERN
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WEARS A LAB COAT
CONFEDERATE
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47 yr old ACCOUNTANT
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IRISH-AMERICAN
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MILD-MANNERED AND LIKEABLE
PROCEDURE
SLIPS OF PAPER TAKEN FROM HAT TO
DETERMINE WHO WOULD BE TEACHER
 BOTH SLIPS “TEACHER”
 LEARNER STRAPPED INTO ‘ELECTRIC
CHAIR’ IN A DIFFERENT ROOM
 TEACHER GIVEN ‘SAMPLE SHOCK’ (45v)
 TEACHER TOLD THAT AT EVERY MISTAKE
VOLTAGE MUST BE INCREASED
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PROCEDURE continued…
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If participants asked about the shocks:
“Although the shocks may be painful, there is no
permanent tissue damage”
Teacher reads out pairs of words
Learner must respond to stimulus correctly to
avoid punishment.
Learner deliberately gets them wrong
Teacher administers shock with each wrong
response
PROCEDURE continued…
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Learner was heard to be distressed and in pain.
If teacher hesitated the experimenter used the
following ‘prods’:
“Please continue”
“The experiment requires that you
continue”
“It’s absolutely essential that you
continue”
“You have no other choice, you must go
on”
SHOCKS
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Each wrong answer resulted in an increase
in shocks.
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Started at 15v (Mild Shock) and went up
to 450v (Severe and Dangerous Shock)
What percentage of the participants do you
think administered the highest shock of
450v?
RESULTS
100%
of participants
continued to 300v (Extremely
intense shock)
65% of participants went all
the way up to 450v
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdb20gc
c_Ns
Why did the participants
obey?
WHY DID THEY OBEY?
 YALE
UNIVERSITY IS PRESTIGIOUS
 ADVANCEMENT
OF KNOWLEDGE –
THOUGHT EXPERIMENT WAS FOR A
WORTHY PURPOSE
 VOLUNTEER
 OBLIGATION
VICTIM
TO EXPERIMENTER
WHY DID THEY OBEY?
 PAYMENT
 COULD
HAVE BEEN ME – THOUGHT
ROLES OF LEARNER AND TEACHER
HAD BEEN ALLOCATED FAIRLY
 WERE
TOLD THE SHOCKS WERE
PAINFUL BUT NOT DANGEROUS
CONCLUSION
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Ordinary people can follow orders given
by an authority figure, even if it requires
doing something inhumane.
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Obedience to authority is ingrained in all
of us through how we are brought up.
CONCLUSION continued
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Obedience is due to situational factors
– i.e. experimental settings, rather than
dispositional factors, i.e. a deviant
personality