Obedience and Conformity

1. 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?

2. Obedience and Conformity • Milgram – writing exercise

3. 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%

4. Milgram’s 37 • Experiment 18 “A peer administers shocks” in Milgram’s book Obedience to authority: An experimental view (pp. 121-122).

5. Personalizing the victim • Markedly reduces obedience

6. Gender • Are men or women more obedient in Milgram’s paradigm? Or are they equally obedient?

7. 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?

8. 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?

11. Relevance of the FAE • How is the fundamental attribution error relevant to Milgram’s research?

12. Historical insights • How might Milgram’s research offer insights into historical events such as the Holocaust and the My Lai massacre?

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

14. 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? (don’t want to look silly)

15. 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.

16. 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: • Don’t walk on the black squares: • Don’t Eat Light: • Delaware closed today:

17. 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)

18. 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)

19. 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.

20. 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?

21. 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 I’m 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

22. 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?