 Authorities frequently influence others through compliance

 Individuals adopt a particular behavior not because they agree with its content, but rather they
expect to gain specific rewards or approval and avoid specific punishment or disappointments

 Example: Milgram’s Study “Obedience to Authority”—(**don’t have to put all the details, just
want the presenter to understand ah**)

Summary of the Study:

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a study focusing on the conflict
between obedience to authority and personal conscience. He examined justifications for acts of
genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Crimes trials. Their defense
often was based on "obedience" - - that they were just obeying orders whilst under the authority of
their superiors. He tried to answer "Could it be that Eichmann, and his million accomplices in the
Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?"
 In his Study of Obedience Milgram selected 40 male volunteers who had responded to this
advert for persons willing to participate in a Study of Memory
 The experimenter explained that one subject would be assigned the role of "teacher" and
the other would be assigned the role of "learner." However, the assigning of role was
rigged, and all participants were teachers
 Both learner and teacher were then given a sample 45-volt electric shock from an apparatus
attached to a chair into which the "actor-learner" was to be strapped when mistakes made
by the "learner"
 It was understood that the electric shocks were to be of increased by 15 volts in intensity for
each mistake the "learner" made during the experiment
 The shock generator that the "teacher" was told to operate had 30 switches in 15 volt
increments, each switch was labeled with a voltage ranging from 15 up to 450 volts.
 Each switch also had a rating, ranging from "slight shock" to "danger: severe shock". The
final two switches being labelled "XXX"
 The experiment also included encouragements were, in fact, pre-scripted by the research
team and followed this pattern:-
Prod 1: Please continue or Please go on.
Prod 2: The experiment requires that you continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: You have no other choice, you must go on.
 In this scenario 65% of the "teachers" obeyed orders to punish the learner to the very end of
the 450-volt scale! No subject stopped before reaching 300 volts!

 The study focus on obedience to malevolent authority, obedience that violates moral judgments
o Milgram — “Authority is assumed to emanate from personal qualities, but from the
(person’s) perceived position in a social structure”
o Illustrates the powerful impact that social influence can exert on behavior
o However, to a certain extent the experiment overlaps coercion and persuasion.
 Coercive aspects: experimenter was pushing individuals to act contrary to their
preferences, might experience the authority’s directives as a threat
 But at the end, individuals were free to stop the shocks whenever they wanted

 Interpretations of Milgram findings include:

o Early Socialization. People are socialized to obey authority and they get rewarded for
doing so. We value obedience. E.g. success in school, on sports and others require us to
comply with request of authorities
 o Trappings of authority. Various aspects of the experimental situation contribute to “aura
of legitimacy”
 Status of the institution; Yale University
 Complex, expensive scientific equipment in the room
 Experimenter’s clothing i.e. the white lab coat makes them look professional
 Experimenter’s gender- male looks more prestigious
o Binding forces. The experiment set in motion powerful psychological forces that locked
participants into compliance. They did not perceive that they had the right or ability to
question

The experimenters were reluctant to mention many concerns:

 the participants believed they lacked the knowledge to challenge the

experimenter,
 afraid of what would happen if they confronted the experimenter,
 concern that they might implicitly fail to accomplish the goal of the study and
Yale University

Additional Issues

 Obedience was more likely to occur under certain conditions than other

o EX. More individuals obeyed when the experimenter sat a few feet from the teacher
than when he left the room and relayed orders by telephone

 Obedience dropped sharply when individual refused to shock the learner

 Milgram’s studies have been endlessly debated, criticized and praised

o Study involved the use of archaic, physical violence; yet much violence involves
verbal and psychological abuse.

o Immoral to leave participants with knowledge that they could be cruel, slavishly
obedient creatures.

 In respond, Milgram pointed out that participant in his studies had been debriefed, had not
suffered harm, and actually viewed the experiment as enlightenment.

Application

 The Milgram’s experiment helps us understand:

o why U.S. soldiers tortured prisoners at the Abu Ghraib, Iraq, prison in responding to
orders by authority and peer pressure

o Why White House aides have followed presidents’ commands to cover up illegal
acts, lie about them, or stonewall the press

o Actions taken in health maintenance organization (HMOs), as when doctors slavishly

follow HMO authorities’ orders to have special medical procedures performed only
at the HMO.
 The experiment sheds light on a much different problem: the distress professional
secretaries experience when their bosses ask them to commit unethical acts

o EX. The secretary for a school district who routinely compiled with her boss’s
request to inflate grades of college-bound students.

o She has no choice only obey

BUT

o she could reveal all when she left the job or had retired or blown the whistle on the
boss by asking a newspaper reporter to investigate the issue

 The point is:

o There is always a way to respect conscience and resist exploitive authorities, in some
way, shape, or form. If ever you are faced with a situation in which you must choose
between your morals and the tempting desire to follow the crowd or a boss,
remember the Milgram results

 Ask yourself:

o You will be less likely to acquiesce to authority and more inclined to do something
that will sit well with your inner convictions by asking yourself questions.

 What do I believe?

 Is this something I really want to do?

 How will I feel tomorrow when I realize I could have respected my own
beliefs?