Milgram’s Variation (1965

Aim:

-          To look at the affects of group pressure on obedience

Procedure:

-          Same Procedure as the original study

-          80 participants were used this time again males between the ages of 20 and 50 who were collected again using volunteer sampling

-          At YALE University again

-          Introduced to Wallace (Stooge)

-          Shown shock generator

-          3 Teachers this time only one was a participant the other two were stooges

-          Two Conditions used

1.       Obedient Stooge condition – where  both stooges shocked Mr Wallace to 450 volts and were unhappy when the participant tried not to continue

2.       Rebellious Stooge condition – Where the one of the stooges stopped at 150 volts and the other stopped at 210 volts

-          40 participants took part in each condition and a baseline condition was used to compare the results to which was the results of Milgram’s original study (1963)

Results:

Baseline Condition = 65% shocked to 450 volts

Rebellious Stooge Condition = 15% shocked to 450 volts

Obedient Stooge Condition = 72.5% went to 450 volts

Conclusion:

-          Behaviour of the stooges made a difference to the obedience rate

-          The presence of the rebellious stooges reduced obedience, as the participant felt able to refuse orders once the others had done so.

-          However the obedient stooges raised obedience levels.