DEFINITION:
“The act of obeying, or the state of being
obedient; compliance with that which is
required by authority; subjection to rightful
restraint or control .”
Obedience.(n.d.). In Webster dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.websterdictionary.org/definition/obedience
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVg
M
1. Milgram served as teaching assistant for Solomon Asch and
found inspiration to conduct research related to the conformity
paradigm. Asch is a renowned psychologist known for his
research on conformity and the ‘line judgment task’.
2. Milgram was a Jewish man and his curiosity for the
obedience paradigm stemmed in part by his attempt to
fathom the events that took place during the holocaust.
3. Milgram wanted to pursue a career in social psychology
4. Milgram sought determine whether ordinary people would
inflict pain on someone else based on Adolf Eichmanns story.
Reviews of Milgram's study often criticized him of
being unscrupulous as he noted that participants
displayed nervousness, trembles, and stuttering.
Collectivist gains should not be ignored. Some
scholars support Milgram's study.
•Conformity
•An action of a participant who adopts his behaviours
from his group members that have the same status.
•Obedience
• An action of a participant who complies with
authority.
•Hierarchy
-Obedience occurs in a hierarchical structure
-Conformity happens among people with some
status.
•Imitation
-There is imitation in conformity.
-There is no imitation in obedience.
•Explicitness
-Obedience: the instruction for an action is explicit.
-Conformity: the requirement of changing remains
implicit.
•Voluntarism
-Conformity: explains his own behavior as
voluntary.
-Obedience: denying any personal involvement but
due to an authority.
‘le jeu de la mort’ is a French game show
experiment modelled after Stanley Milgram's
famous obedience study
16/80 participants refused to obey the orders
given by the host.
80% of the participants
went to the very end
of the voltage meter(460 volts).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuJ0zvp1Jlg
A Behavioural Study of Obedience in Children
Shanab and Yahya conducted a replication of Milgram's’
obedience experiment on 192 Jordan subjects ranging from
age six to sixteen.
Method: The sessions involved a female experimenter, the
learner and the subject. For female subjects, a 15 year old
confederate played the role of the learner. For male subjects,
an 11, 15, and 13 year was the confederate depending on
each subject.
- Relationship between punishment and learning
Results: - There is no difference between males and females.
- More females than males reported that they punished
because they were obeying the orders.
- 73% of subjects including both sexes continued to the end of
the scale.
Hofling Hospital Experiment:
This was an experiment designed to determine how
far nurses will obey an authority figure such as a
doctor.
Results: Hofling demonstrated that people are very
unwilling to question supposed ‘authority’, even when
they might have good reason to. The results showed
that 21 out of the 22 nurses easily obeyed and carried
on with the orders they received.
Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi lieutenant colonel that was partly
responsible for the deportation and slaughter of numerous European
Jews. He was charged for crimes against humanity and during his
trial, he stated that he was simply obeying the orders given to him by
his superiors.
“The orders were, for me, the highest thing in my life and I had to obey
them without question”
He was found guilty and hung on June 1st 1962.
Author and philosopher Hannah Arendt wrote in her book ‘Eichmann in
Jerusalem’ that Eichmanns’ actions during the holocaust was due to a
natural human response of obedience and his own inability to think for
himself. Arendt's received a lot of backlash because of her claims.
In agreement with Arendt, Milgram stated that an ordinary person can
become an agent of a destructive process due to his/her sense of
obligation to the duties assigned to them.
1.
You work at a fast food restaurant and notice that the box of
thawed patties has grown mold on it. Your manager checks
the meat to see if it is moldy and it looks fine. He/She tells
you to put the patties on the grill.
2. You go in for a routine check up at the family doctor and
he/she bring out a needle full of a new vaccine that he/she
insists will be implemented in hospitals across the country in
a few months. The doctor says that you have been selected
to receive the vaccine and you must get the shot.
3. You are assisting your father as he works on the engine of an
old car. He has fixed many cars and is an experienced
mechanic. He tells you to start the engine while he has his
hand between wires inside the engine. you do not feel right
about it but he has a strong voice and yells at you to quickly
start the engine.
4. It is thunder storming outside and you are early for a
business meeting. As you approach the main entrance, you
notice a sign that says “Do not enter, please use rear doors”.
You noticed that the door is slightly opened, indicating that
it is unlocked.
5. You are on an airplane flying across the Atlantic ocean. it is
not experiencing turbulence yet you are told to fasten your
seat belt and power off your phone by a flight attendant.
Strip Search Compliance: There were numerous cases
reported that involved an anonymous caller who phoned
shops and businesses pretending to be law enforcement. The
caller would manipulate supervisors and managers into strip
searching employees (mostly females) who were accused of
theft by this individual.
Louise Ogborn was an 18 year old former McDonald’s employee
who was awarded 6.1 million after she was falsely accused of
theft, forced to strip naked and humiliated by her managers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7zl7XUcJc
1. My Lai Massacre
2. Abu Ghraib
3. The Reverend Jim Jones and his congregation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rWtDMPaRD8
Darling, Cumsille and Martinez conducted a study where they
measured Chilean adolescents likelihood to obey, controlling the
study for parenting.
- 703 11-19 year olds ranging from grade 6 - grade 12 were
selected
- they used the Strategic Disclosure Questionnaire to analyse how
frequently adolescents obeyed their parents.
Results:
Adolescents are more likely to obey despite their disagreement with
their parents when it came to issues that their parents set clear rules
for and enforced strictly.
Adolescents were more likely to obey their parents when it came to
issues that they agreed with their parents about.
Question: If a child is reared by criminal parents who strictly enforce
their immoral beliefs, once the child becomes an adolescent, will they
still obey?
The social power of the uniform by Leonard Bickman is a study conducted to
determine whether people dressed in uniform possess a greater power than
those not in uniform.
Method: 153 pedestrians whose age ranged from age 18-61 were selected as
subjects in Flatbush, Brooklyn, N.Y four male confederates each dressed up
in 3 different types of attire that represented 3 variations of authority.
1. The civilian in a sports jacket and tie
2. The milkman
3. The guard
Scenarios: Picking up a bag, dime and meter, bus stop-no standing
Results: The guard was obeyed the most in all three situations followed
by the milkman and the civilian respectively. The least obedience occurred
in the bus stop situation. There was no difference in gender or age for
the results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16QMQXIjYVU
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Durkin and Jefferey (2000)
Method: asked children aged 5-9 years old who could
make an arrest using illustrated scenarios:
◦ a policeman out of uniform
◦ a policeman in uniform
◦ a man who is not a policeman but is wearing a
uniform.
Results:
◦ Children who made the wrong chose mainly because they have
chosen the non-policeman with a police uniform.
◦ This suggests that even for children, power does reside in the
uniform.
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A study done by Powell et.al. (2008)
Method: Children (5-6 & 7-8) were presented with different
scenarios in which various adults requested assistance from a child.
◦ A police officer
◦ A teacher
◦ An unspecified adult
Results:
◦ Perceived legitimacy of the request was highest for the police
officer compared to the teacher.
◦ Children’s justifications suggested that the positive relationship
between obedience and social status was due to fear of
punishment for not obeying, especially for the younger age group.
In Milgrams’ obedience study, participants were said to
have obeyed due to the following reasons:
1. In many cultures, people are taught to obey authority
figures; teachers, parents, police officers etc.
2. The strategic gradual increase in demands by the
experimenter
3. Information about the experiment was limited
4. Responsibility was not assigned to the participants
Other Reasons:
1. Some obey because they support the cause
2. Others obey because they feel that they do not have a
choice
Authority factor: This includes people in uniform
such as the police, military leader and a scientist
in a labcoat.
Procedure factor: This includes the location of
the experimenter and the victim. Obedience is
highest when the experimenter is in the same
room rather than giving instructions over the
phone.
Person factor: People who are in groups are able
to disobey authorities compared to people who are
on their own.
1.Agreeable
2.Conscientious
3.Authoritarian

Captain Paul Grueninger
--The chief of police who saved Jewish refugees by
refusing to do his duty

Hofling Hospital Experiment

Rank & Jacobson (1977)
◦ A failure to replicate
◦ Challenging Hofling with a more realistic drug
Result:
◦ Only 2 out of 18 nurses followed the order.
◦ Obedience rates were lowered by increased
realism of the experiment and the discussion
with a colleague.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCpxF2lYpo
Does obedience vary over time and gender? What variables need to
be taken into account?
1.
Do you consider the Milgram paradigm to be ethical or unethical?
What are the arguments supporting your position?
2.
3.
4.
What is the current evaluation of Milgrams’ research?
What is meant by “obedience optimization”?
Can you think of other situations/settings where obedience might be
dangerous? What suggestions could you offer to reduce the possibility
of destructive obedience endangering others?
5.
As a psychologist, what advice would you give parents who ask you
about the role of obedience in childrearing? When is it appropriate or
inappropriate for the child to obey adults? To whom should obedience
be given?
6.
“French”. (2010, March 17). French contestants torture each other on TV Game of Death. The Telegraph.
Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7457780/French-contestants-tortureeach-other-on-TV-Game-of-Death.html
Cunha, M.P., Rego, A., & Clegg, S.R. (2010). Obedience and Evil: From Milgram and Kampuchea to Normal
Organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 97, 291-309. Doi: 10.1007/s10551-010-0510-5
Shanab, M.E., & Yahya,K.A.(1977). A behavioural study of obedience in children. Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology, 35(7), 530-536. Doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1037/0022-3514.35.7.530
Darling, N.,Cumsille, P., & Martinez, M.L.( 2007). Adolescents' as active agents in the socialization process:
Legitimacy of parental authority and obligation to obey as predictors of obedience. Journal of Adolescence, 30(2),
297-311. Doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/10.1016/j.adolescence.2006.03.003
Obedience.(n.d.). In Webster dictionary online. Retrieved from http://www.websterdictionary.org/definition/obedience
Olson, J. M., Breckler, S. J., & Wiggins, E. C. (2008). Social psychology alive (1st Canadian ed.). Toronto:
Thomson Nelson.
Bickman, L. (1974). The social power of a Uniform. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 4(1), 4761 Retreieved from
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ml.
Miller, A. G. (1986). The obedience experiments: A case study of controversy in social science. New
York: Praeger.
Milgram, S. (2004). Obedience to authority: An experimental view (1st Perennial Classics ed.). New
York: Perennial Classics.
McLeod, S.A (2007). Obedience to Authority | Simply Psychology. Retrieved November 2, 2014,
from http://www.simplypsychology.org/obedience.html
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2014). “Introduction to the Holocaust.” Holocaust
Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 2, 2014
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005143.
Blass, T. (2000). Obedience to authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram paradigm.
Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Durkin, K. and Jeffery, L. (2000), The salience of the uniform in young children's
perception of police status. Legal and Criminological Psychology, 5(1) 47–55.
DOI: 10.1348/135532500167967
Powell, M.B, Wilson, J.C., Gibbons, C & Croft, C.M. (2008) Children’s conception of
police authority when responding to requests for assistance, Police Practice and
Research: An International Journal, 9(1), 5-16, DOI:10.1080/15614260801969888
Rank, S. G., & Jacobson, C. K. (1977). Hospital nurses' compliance with medication
overdose orders: A failure to replicate. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 18(2),
188-193. Retrieved from
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