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Situational Variables - Coggle Diagram
Situational Variables
Uniform
Easily recognisable uniforms such as police officer convey power and authority which can become symbolised in the uniform itself.
Bushman 1988
Had a female researcher dress in a police style uniform, as a business executive or as a beggar. They stopped people in the street and asked them to give the female money for an expired parking ticket.
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When interviewed after Bushman's study, the participants said they obeyed the woman in police uniform because she appeared to have more authority.
Proximity
Obedience fell to 40% in Milgram's study as the teacher and learner were in the same room so the teacher could experience the learner's anguish directly.
In touch proximity variation, teacher forced learner's hand onto shock plate - obedience fell to 30%
In the experimenter absent study, the experimenter left the room after giving instructions and gave further orders of the phone. only 21% of participants obeyed to the maximum shock level.
Location
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It was remarked by participants that the location gave them confidence in the integrity of the people involved suggesting they would not have obeyed if it was elsewhere.
Milgram moved the study to a run-down office building in Bridgeport, Connecticut with no obvious connections to Yale. Obedience dropped slightly to 48% delivering the full 450v.
Evaluation
Proximity
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Challenged relevance of obedience research to explain real life atrocities claiming Milgram's conclusions were not from real life events.
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Their commanding officer Major Wilhelm Trapp offered for men who didn't feel up to the duty to be assigned to other tasks.
Despite close proximity to the victims and disobedient peers, which match with Milgram's conclusions, only a small number took the offer, most carried out the task without protest.
Location
Fromm 1973 - Milgram's subjects knew they were part of a study so were more likely to obey than in real life.
In a lab setting, the experimenter acts as a representative of science, a prestigious institution in Western culture.
Fromm suggested high degrees of obedience in Milgram's study (65%) was less surprising than 35% disobedience.
In comparison, real-life obedience to authority is often more difficult and time-consuming to achieve than in lab settings.
Genocides such as in Rwanda 1994 required year of manipulation of the masses and systematic dehumanisation of the target group.
Uniform
Durkin and Jeffery 2000 - young children's understanding or police authority was dominated by visual cues, specifically the uniform.
Asked children aged 5 to 9 using illustrated scenarios to identify who made an arrest from a policeman in civilian clothes, a man of different occupation in a police uniform temporarily, or a man in a different uniform.
The children tended to choose the man in the police uniform, younger children were more likely to choose a non-police officer in police uniform than the policeman out of his uniform.