Behavioral Study of obedience.

Abstract

This article describes a procedure for the study of destructive obedience in the laboratory. It consists of ordering a naive S to administer increasingly more severe punishment to a victim in the context of a learning experiment. Punishment is administered by means of a shock generator with 30 graded switches ranging from Slight Shock to Danger: Severe Shock. The victim is a confederate of the E. The primary dependent variable is the maximum shock the S is willing to administer before he refuses to continue further. 26 Ss obeyed the experimental commands fully, and administered the highest shock on the generator. 14 Ss broke off the experiment at some point after the victim protested and refused to provide further answers. The procedure created extreme levels of nervous tension in some Ss. Profuse sweating, trembling, and stuttering were typical expressions of this emotional disturbance. One unexpected sign of tension-yet to be explained-was the regular occurrence of nervous laughter, which in some Ss developed into uncontrollable seizures. The variety of interesting behavioral dynamics observed in the experiment, the reality of the situation for the S, and the possibility of parametric variation within the framework of the procedure, point to the fruitfulness of further study.Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to. Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the man dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of others. Obedience, as a determinant of behavior, is of particular relevance to our time. It has been reliably established that from 1933-45 millions of innocent persons were systematically slaughtered on command. Gas chambers were built, death camps were guarded, daily quotas of corpses were produced with the same efficiency as the manufacture of appliances. These inhumane policies may have originated in the mind of a single person, but they could only be carried out on a massive scale if a very large number of persons obeyed orders.Obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. It is the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority. Facts of recent history and observation in daily life suggest

Principles, processes, and puzzles of social cognition: An introduction for the special issue on social cognitive neuroscience

“…Observers often mistake situationally induced behavior as implying that others are evil, stupid, or weak willed, when in fact these individuals are good, decent individuals, just like us, who unwittingly succumb to the power of the situation. The most famous of these studies is Milgram's (1963) work on obedience to authority in which he demonstrated that individuals are willing to shock a complete stranger at high voltages when pressed by a scientific experimenter who insists that ''the experiment must continue''. Asch (1956) conducted conformity experiments in which participants gave conspicuously wrong answers to simple problems because other confederates, who were strangers to the participant, consistently gave the same wrong answer before the participant had an opportunity to respond.…”

“…1. Distribution of predicted and actual stopping voltages in the Milgram (1963) experiment. Psychiatrists (dark grey bars) and other normal individuals (light grey bars) made predictions about the voltage at which they thought they would stop if they were run through the experimental protocol.…”

The Researcher as Experimental Subject: Using Self-Experimentation to Access Experiences, Understand Social Phenomena, and Stimulate Reflexivity

“…Consider Harold Garfinkel's (1967) "breaching experiments," wherein researchers would consciously exhibit a contextually inappropriate behavior in a mundane social situation in order to observe the social reactions elicited by such behavior as well as (and more relevant to the notion of self-study) to gain experiential insight into the nature of violations of social expectations (Rafalovich, 2006). Stanley Milgram, famous for his Social Self-Experimentation 8 controversial studies on obedience to authority (Milgram, 1963), adopted Garfinkel's approach in several field experiments. These included a study into whether random strangers on New York City subways would give up their seats upon request to a covert experimenter, and while the study primarily focused on the reaction and compliance of the subway riders party to these requests, Milgram had his experimenters record and reflect on their own emotions, behavior, and psychological states during the interactions (Milgram, 2010b).…”

Untitled

“…showing that 65% of a group of ordinary experimental subjects where willing to give another person electrical shocks up to 450 volts if prompted to do so by an experimenter the Milgram experiments have been widely discussed (Milgram, 1963). Some have subjected the experiments, and Milgram personally to severe criticism, whereas others have found the results disturbing but at the same time extremely enlightening.…”

“…The first paper on the ethics of Milgram's research appeared only one year after the publication of Milgram's 1963 article. In this article two major problems in Milgram's design was identified and very harshly criticised.…”