Obedience and Conformity

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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 told-Milgram's 37."
• What does the "37" refer to?

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Obedience and Conformity

• Milgram writing exercise

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Summary of Milgram Studies

• Obeying
• Teacher does not deliver shock, but helped
  out. 93
• Victim pounds on wall then becomes silent 65
• Victim heard protesting (movie version) 50
• Victim in same room 40
• Teacher has to put victim's hand on shock plate
  30
• Victim says at outset that he will do study
• only if he is let out when he wants to
  be 40
• Study done in Bridgeport, CT (film version) 48
• Experimenter in remote location 19
• Teacher told to select the level of shock
• (experimenter legitimizes all levels) 3

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Milgrams 37

• Experiment 18 A peer administers shocks in
  Milgrams book Obedience to authority An
  experimental view (pp. 121-122).

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Personalizing the victim

• Markedly reduces obedience

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Gender

• Are men or women more obedient in Milgrams
  paradigm? Or are they equally obedient?

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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?

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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?

9
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?

10
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?

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Relevance of the FAE

• How is the fundamental attribution error relevant
  to Milgrams research?

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Historical insights

• How might Milgrams research offer insights into
  historical events such as the Holocaust and the
  My Lai massacre?

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Conformity

• Conformity A change in ones behavior due to
  the real or imagined influence of other people.
• Unlike obedience, conformity does not require
  commands or coercion by an authority.

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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? (dont want to look silly)

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Private vs. Public conformity

• Private conformity change of beliefs that occurs
  when a person privately accepts the position
  taken by others.
• Public conformity superficial change in overt
  behavior, without a corresponding change of
  opinion, produced by real or imagined group
  pressure.

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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
• Dont walk on the black squares
• Dont Eat Light
• Delaware closed today

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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)

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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)

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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.

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• 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?

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Compliance

• Mindlessness/Automatic Pilot
• Langer colleagues (1978)
• IV How phrased request
• Excuse me. I have five pages. May I use the
  xerox machine? (No reason)
• ....because Im 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

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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?