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OBEDIENCE AND CONFORMITY IN SCHOOLS

Research Design Proposal: Obedience and Conformity in Schools

Samantha Trumpower

SSS 251 01: Research Methods

Emily Belsito

May 3, 2020

Research Design Proposal: Obedience in Schools

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Introduction

The research design presented in this proposal attempts to further study obedience and

conformity in a university setting based on the Milgram shock experiment conducted by Stanley

Milgram in the early 1960s and the Asch conformity experiment conducted by Solomon Asch in

the early 1950s. Stanley Milgram’s experiment focused on how people reacted to authority

figures, specifically looking at obedience. The experiment consisted of three individuals: the

experimenter, a confederate giving the teacher orders; the teacher, a non-confederate

(participant), asking the student a series of questions and delivering, unbeknownst to them, a

fake electric shock; the student, another confederate, who answered the teacher’s questions and

responded to the fake electric shocks. The results of the experiment found that 65% of the

participants delivered the highest range of electric shock, 450 volts, to the confederate student.

35% delivered up to 300 volts before refusing to discontinue (Haslam & Reicher, 2012).

The Asch conformity experiment was conducted by Solomon Asch who wanted to

investigate the extent to which social/peer pressure would cause a person to conform. The

experiment consisted of multiple participants: the participant, whose answer was being observed

by Asch; seven confederate students, who knew to answer certain questions wrong to allow Asch

to observe the participant’s answers; Asch, who was at the front of the room asking the

questions. To study conformity, Asch had the real participant sit in a room with seven

confederates that the participant believed to be other participants. The confederates had been

previously assigned answers to each trial that Asch did. The task was to look at four different

lines: the target line and lines A, B, and C. Everyone in the room was asked to compare a line

that was most similar to the target line. Asch had the participant sit in the final seat allowing

them to hear the confederate answers before their answer. 12/18 times the confederates had very
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obviously given the wrong answer and Asch would observe whether or not the real participant

would conform to the groups glaringly incorrect responses.

Students attending a university are visiting a new chapter of their life in which they are

gaining new knowledge and experiences. Providing a study in which students are tested on their

obedience to their professors and conformity to their classmates can bring three important

findings to the table. First, researching if students are obedient in a classroom setting can provide

important knowledge as to how teachers can encourage their students to become free thinkers

who can form their own ideas from their learning environment. Second, this research could assist

teachers in reducing herd thinking, which is known to lead to conformity, amongst their students.

Third, making students aware of their obedience to their professor and conformity to their peers

can help in the near future to make decisions that may go against an authority figure or a large

group of people. Considering this information, I would hypothesize that students have a blind

obedience to their professors and have a tendency to conform to the majority ideals of their

classmates, but becoming aware of that obedience and conformity can help them in avoiding

such traits in the future. To answer these questions and test the hypothesis stated, the research

question attempting to answer this is: If students become aware of their obedience to their

professors and conformity to their peers, will that allow them to be more aware of those factors,

allowing them to think individualistically with confidence?

Literature Review

When people are approached and ordered to do something by an authoritative figure, they

have two options: (1) obey the authority and receive no punishment; (2) disobey the authority

and suffer the consequences. These consequences are not just punishments that can be physical,

emotional, or financial. But, based on Milgram’s experiment, the consequence seems to be

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falling victim to human nature of the desire to follow orders. Researchers inferred that there is a

major flaw in human nature: “our desire to be good subjects is stronger than our desire to be

subjects who do good” (Haslam & Reicher, 2012). Psychologically, obedience is more complex

than is seen on the surface level; obedience can be defined as the “means that the subject keeps

the action and attitude the same as that of the object to seek rewards or avoid punishments after

summarizing, judging, and deducing the object” (Song et al., 2012). Although Milgram’s

experiment was an extreme case of either obeying or disobeying, because it was found that more

than half of the participants delivered a lethal electrocution to the student, it can be inferred that

taking orders from an authority in a non-life-threatening situation is likely.

A study done in 2017, that received approval from the departmental ethics commission,

did a very similar study based on the original Milgram shock experiment (Doliński et al.). The

researchers of this study found that, even many years after the original experiment, the amount of

people who obeyed the authority and delivered the highest voltage came to be 90% of

participants. However, this study provided proper ethical debriefing which was not provided in

Stanley Milgram’s experiment. It has been found that Milgram did not follow a code of ethics

similar to todays; most concerning is that ¾ of his participants were not told that the electric

shock was fake and may have believed they had killed the confederate (Griggs et al., 2020). This

experiment done in 2017 (Doliński et al.) and the original Milgram shock experiment appear to

provide very compelling evidence that normal people will blindly follow an authority figure even

if it means killing someone (Haslam & Reicher, 2012), however other researchers argue that the

blind obedience should be seen as engaged followership that comes from a social identification

with the authority figure (Reicher et al., 2012). This statement is further clarified by the

researchers that the participants of the Milgram study, and studies similar to the original, are
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committed to the research the experimenter is doing and assisting them in finding the results,

which outweighs their commitment to members of their community (Reicher et al., 2012).

In a university classroom, a professor performed a study in which she attempted to

provide an example of student obedience to their teacher (Snyder, 2003). Snyder’s demonstration

had students view the Milgram shock experiment, giving them knowledge of what it was. She

asked them to take a soda can in their left hand (which she asked them to bring in for this class)

and hold it. She asked a question in which students were to answer with their right hand. Snyder

then asked her students to raise their left hands to which they were all holding soda cans in the

air, therefore demonstrating to them obedience. A factor that can play a large role in student

behavior, along with obedience to their professor, is herd behavior. Psychologically, herd

behavior can be defined as the tendency for a person to accept the actions and attitudes of others

based on intuition which can lead to conformity (Song et al., 2012). Students are at more risk of

conformity in a classroom setting because they may have a fear of being judged by their

classmates or professor for doing something different. Conformity can be defined as a person’s

actions or attitudes following the example of others (Song et al., 2012). A study done in 1980

replicated the Asch conformity experiment, in which researchers found not only do people still

have a tendency to conform to the group, but the rate of conformity is higher than the results of

the original Asch experiment (Lamb & Alsikafi). All of the literature that has been reviewed in

this section supports that there is a tendency for people to be obedient to authority figures and

alongside with obedience, conformity plays a part in the behavior of people as well. These

studies can be applied to the situation with students and their professors and classmates, showing

that in a real situation, obedience and conformity do tend to exist.

Proposed Methodology
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For the research I would like to conduct, I would choose the convenience sampling

technique. This form of sampling is a group of people who are readily accessible, and therefore

convenient for the researcher. Convenient sampling would allow me to access students who are

in a psychology class that are willing to participate in the study. The characteristics of my

intended sample would be students in an introductory psychology course ranging in age, ideally,

from 18 – 21. In the studies that I would like to conduct, I would collect my data from

observations, test scores, and surveys. I am not going to be using a specific scale to collect data,

rather I will collect data from observing what the participants do, if they answer questions on a

provided test, and from a very brief survey following the experiment.

Study 1: Conformity

To study how peers conform to one another, students in an introductory psychology class

will be offered extra credit to participate in a study. If there are more than 20 students who wish

to participate in the study, they will be separated into two separate groups around 10 people each,

ideally (the study would then occur again with the separate group of students who wished to

participate). The students will be given an informed consent statement in which it will highlight

important information such as: any risks that come with this study, the fact that the participants

may be contacted afterwards for further questions about the study, that their participation is

voluntary, and that they may opt out of the study at any point if they choose. The students are

made to believe that they will be taking a test to see how much knowledge they retained from

high school. The test will consist of 20 questions, all in the style of multiple choice, consisting of

five questions per each subject: math, science, history, and English. The teacher who offers the

extra credit will inform the participating students of the time and location of the test and inform

them that he/she will be the one handing out the test.
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On the date of the test, the 10 students will arrive to a room of 25 confederates who they

believe are also other students coming to take the test. There will be empty seats for the real

participants only next to the confederates, this way the real participants are scattered throughout

the room. A professor who is not the participants’ normal professor will enter the room and

inform the students that their professor could not make it and they will take their place. The new

professor will hand the tests out to the students face down. They will be given a script in which

they say, “do not flip over the test until I say it is time,” after the professor has passed out every

test they will stand at the front of the room and say to the class, “you have half an hour to

complete the test, I will not be answering any questions, please remain in your seat until the half

an hour is up. You may now begin, do not put your name on the test.” The tests given to the real

participants will have a star symbol in the top right corner to show the researcher this test was

given to a real participant.

When the students flip over the test, the directions at the top of the page will state, “This

is a test to gain an understanding of how much knowledge university students have retained from

high school. There are 20 questions pertaining to math, science, history, and English that are at a

high school level. This test is timed, you will be given 30 minutes to complete it. To complete

this study, do not take this test.” The 25 confederates have been so informed before the test that

they will ignore the directions on the test and take it anyway. Each confederate will complete the

test. Once the 30 minutes is up, the students will hand in their papers to the professor. The

professor will then ask all of the students to return to their seats and then announce that the

confederates may leave the room. The real participants will then be given a form in which they

are briefed on what the study was really about and if they had any further questions or concerns,

they may contact the real professor as their contact information would be provided on the paper.
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The paper would also contain a very short survey in which it explained conformity and whether

or not the students felt that they were influenced by conformity in this experiment and if they

feel they are more aware of conformity after the experiment.

Study 2: Obedience

To study how students show obedience to an authority figure, students in an introductory

psychology class will be offered extra credit to participate in a study. There will not be a limit in

how many students can participate in this study. The students will be given an informed consent

statement which highlights important information such as: any risks that come with this study,

that the participants may be contacted afterwards for further questions about the study, that their

participation is voluntary, and that they may opt out of the study at any point if they choose. The

students are made to believe that they will be taking a test to see how much knowledge they

retained from high school. The test will consist of 20 questions, all in the style of multiple

choice, consisting of five questions per each subject: math, science, history, and English. The

teacher who offers the extra credit will inform the participating students of the time and location

of the test and inform them that he/she will be the one handing out the test.

On the day of the study the students will enter the room, the desks they will use will have

desk dividers, therefore students will not be able to see what their classmates are doing, to reduce

the likelihood of conformity. In the room will already be a confederate professor, again, they will

not be the participants normal professor; they will inform the students to choose a desk with a

desk divider on it. The desks with dividers will be spaced two to three desks apart from one

another, depending on the number of participants. Once all students have arrived, the confederate

teacher will hand out the test and tell them not to flip over the tests until they say it is time,

explaining that their normal professor could not make it. The professor will then stand in the
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front of the class and read the directions, “you have half an hour to complete this test, I will not

be answering any questions, please remain in your seat until the 30 minutes is up. Do not put

your names on this test, ignore the instructions and complete the quiz, you may now begin.”

When the students flip over their test, the directions at the top of the page will state, “This

is a test to gain an understanding of how much knowledge university students have retained from

high school. There are 20 questions pertaining to math, science, history, and English that are at a

high school level. This test is timed, you will be given 30 minutes to complete the test. To

complete this study do not take this test.” When the 30 minutes are up the confederate professor

will then hand out a paper briefing the students on what the study was actually about. The

briefing will give the real professors contact information so if students have any further questions

or concerns, they may contact them. The paper will also contain a very short survey in which it

explained obedience and whether or not the students felt they were influenced by obedience in

this experiment.

Conclusion

Ethical Considerations

There are four main ethical concerns that need to be looked at in a study such as this one:

(1) protecting the participants from harm; (2) voluntary participation and informed consent; (3)

anonymity and confidentiality; (4) briefing. There were no major concerns for protecting the

participants from harm. There was voluntary participation, the students in the introductory

psychology class were not forced to take part of the study. Because all participants would be

over the age of 18, they can provide their own consent form to their professor that they want to

participate. The participants would be provided anonymity in this study as they were specifically

told not to put their names on the tests. Finally, because the participants were deceived on what
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the purpose of the study was for, they were briefed afterwards by the real professor who was

waiting for the 30 minutes to be up and if they had any further questions on the study they could

privately ask them.

References
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Doliński, D., Grzyb, T., Folwarczny, M., Grzybała, P., Krzyszycha, K., Martynowska, K., &

Trojanowski, J. (2017). 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. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(8), 927–933.

https://doi-org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1948550617693060

Griggs, R. A., Blyler, J., & Jackson, S. L. (2020). Using research ethics as a springboard for

teaching Milgram’s obedience study as a contentious classic. Scholarship of Teaching

and Learning in Psychology. https://doi-org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/stl0000182

Haslam, S. A., & Reicher, S. D. (2012). Contesting the “nature” of conformity: What Milgram

and Zimbardo’s studies really show. PLoS Biology, 10(11). https://doi-

org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001426

Lamb, T. A., & Alsikafi, M. (1980). Conformity in the Asch experiment: Inner-other

directedness and the “defiant subject.” Social Behavior and Personality: An International

Journal, 8(1), 13–16. https://doi-org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.2224/sbp.1980.8.1.13

Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., & Smith, J. R. (2012). Working toward the experimenter:

Reconceptualizing obedience within the Milgram paradigm as identification-based

followership. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(4), 315–324. https://doi-

org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1745691612448482

Snyder, C. R. (2003). “Me conform? No way”: Classroom demonstrations for sensitizing

students to their conformity. Teaching of Psychology, 30(1), 59–61.

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Song, G., Ma, Q., Wu, F., & Li, L. (2012). The psychological explanation of conformity. Social

Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 40(8), 1365–1372. https://doi-

org.setonhill.idm.oclc.org/10.2224/sbp.2012.40.8.1365