Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

In spite of the over 50 years which have passed since the original experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram on obedience, these experiments are still considered a turning point in our thinking about the role of the situation in human behavior. While ethical considerations prevent a full replication of the experiments from being prepared, a certain picture of the level of obedience of participants can be drawn using the procedure proposed by Burger. In our experiment, we have expanded it by controlling for the sex of participants and of the learner. The results achieved show a level of participants’ obedience toward instructions similarly high to that of the original Milgram studies. Results regarding the influence of the sex of participants and of the “learner,” as well as of personality characteristics, do not allow us to unequivocally accept or reject the hypotheses offered.

Keywords

conformity obedience social influence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson

M. L.

(2000). Thinking about women: Sociological perspectives in sex and gender. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Benjamin

L. T.

Simpson

J. A.

(2009). The power of the situation: The impact of Milgram’s obedience studies on personality and social psychology. American Psychologist, 64, 12–19. doi:10.1037/a0014077

Blass

(1991). Understanding behavior in the Milgram obedience experiment: The role of personality, situations, and their interactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 398–413.

Blass

(2004). The man who shocked the world: The life and legacy of Stanley Milgram. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Burger

(2009). Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today? American Psychologist, 64, 1–11. doi:10.1037/a0010932

Cohen

Nisbett

R. E.

Bowdle

B. F.

Schwartz

(1996). Insult, aggression, and southern culture of honor: An “experimental ethnography.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 945–960.

Collins

Brief

(1995). Using person-perception vignette methodologies to uncover the symbolic meanings of teacher behaviors in the Milgram paradigm. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 89–106.

Constanzo

E. M.

(1976). The effect of probable retaliation and sex related variables on obedience. Unpublished doctoral thesis. University of Wyoming, Laramie.

Crowell

N. A.

Burges

A. W.

(Eds.) (1996). Understanding violence against women. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

10.

Eagly

A. H.

Crowley

(1986). Gender and helping behavior: A meta-analytic of the social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 283–308.

11.

Eagly

A. H.

Steffen

V. J.

(1986). Gender and aggressive behavior: A meta-analytic review of the social psychological literature. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 309–330.

12.

Elms

A. C.

(1995). Obedience in retrospect. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 21–31.

13.

Fischer

C. T.

(1968). Ethical issues in the use of human subjects. American Psychologist, 23, 532.

14.

Fontes

McCloskey

(2011). A cultural perspective against women. In Renzetti

Edelson

J.L.

Bergen

R.K.

(Eds.), Sourcebook on violence against women (2nd ed., pp. 151–169). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

15.

Genovese

E. D.

(2000). The chivalric tradition in the old south. The Sewanee Review, 108, 188–205.

16.

Gilbert

S. J.

(1981). The role of the gradated series of shocks. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 7, 690–695.

17.

Girouard

(1981). A return to Camelot. The Wilson Quarterly, 5, 178–189.

18.

Haslam

S. A.

Reicher

S. D.

Birney

M. E.

(2014). Nothing by mere authority: Evidence that in an experimental analogue of the Milgram paradigm participants are motivated not by orders but by appeals to science. Journal of Social Issues, 70, 473–488.

19.

Hodos

G. H.

(1999). The East-Central European region: An historical outline. Westport, Ireland: Praeger.

20.

Kaufmann

(1967). The price of obedience and the price of knowledge. American Psychologist, 22, 321–322

21.

Kilham

Mann

(1974). Level of destructive obedience as a function of transmitter and executant roles in the Milgram obedience paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 696–702.

22.

Lutsky

(1995). When is “obedience” obedience? Conceptual and historical commentary. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 55–65.

23.

Milgram

(1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378. doi:10.1037/h0040525

24.

Milgram

(1965). Some conditions of obedience and disobedience to authority. Human Relations, 18, 57–76. doi:10.1177/001872676501800105

25.

Milgram

(1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York, NY: Harper and Row

26.

Muller-Funk

(2012). The architecture of modern culture: Towards a narrative cultural theory. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.

27.

Naimark

Gibianskii

(Eds.) (1997). The establishment of communist regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949. Boulder and Oxford, CA: Westview Press.

28.

Nisbett

R. E.

Cohen

(1996). Culture of honor: The psychology of violence in the south. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

29.

Petersen

R. D.

(2001). Resistance and rebellion. Lessons from Eastern Europe. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

30.

Piliavin

J.A.

Unger

R. K.

(1985). The helpful but helpless female: Myth or reality? In O’Leary

V.E.

Unger

R.K.

Wallston

B.S.

(Eds.) Women, gender, and social psychology (pp. 149–189). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

31.

Reicher

S. D.

Haslam

S. A.

Miller

A. G.

(2014). What makes a person a perpetrator? The intellectual, moral, and methodological arguments for revisiting Milgram’s research on the influence of authority. Journal of Social Issues, 70, 393–408.

32.

Rothschild

Wingfield

N. M.

(2007). Return to diversity. A political history of East Central Europe since World War II (4th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

33.

Rotter

J. B.

(1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs, 80 (Whole No. 609).

34.

Shanab

M. E.

Yahya

K. A.

(1978). A cross-cultural study of obedience. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 11, 267–269.

35.

Slater

Antley

Davison

Swapp

Guger

Barker

… Sanchez-Vives

M. V.

(2006). A virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments. PloS One, 1, e39.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000039.

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.95 MB

Would You Deliver an Electric Shock in 2015? Obedience in the Experimental Paradigm Developed by Stanley Milgram in the 50 Years Following the Original Studies

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material