Obedience

• Majority & minority influence do not

always involve a deliberate attempt to
change someone’s behaviour
• Obedience always involves a direct
attempt by one person to control

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another
Obedience

“Complying with or deferring to a request

or order from a legitimate authority”

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Studies of Obedience

• Milgram (1963)
• A study of destructive obedience to
authority
• Involved giving people orders to hurt and
possibly kill an innocent stranger

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“Milgram Study” video clip goes here

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Variations on Milgram
• Female PPs – 65%
• Victim screaming – 62.5%
• Visible victim – 40%
• Physical contact – 30%
• Experimenter absent – 22%

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• Run down office – 45%
• Disobedient confeds – 10%
• Confed gives shocks – 95%
Factors in Destructive Obedience

• Several factors increase a person’s

tendency to obey an authority:
• Legitimacy of the authority
• Social isolation
• ‘Buffers’ between aggressor & victim
• Gradual commitment

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Agency Theory (Milgram, 1963)

• People have two ways of acting

• Autonomous – they direct their own
behaviour, and take responsibility for the
results
• Agentic – they allow someone else to

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direct their behaviour, and assume that
responsibility passes to that person
“Responsibility” video clip goes here

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Agency Theory

• We act agentically when the situation or

social role we are in seems to demand it
• E.g. when given an order by someone
wearing a uniform

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Resisting Obedience
• Educate people
• Students who knew about the Milgram
research were less likely to obey in a
similar study (Gross, 1992)
• Remind people of their responsibilities
• When Milgram’s PPs were reminded that

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they were responsible, almost none
obeyed
Resisting Obedience

• Give social support

• In the ‘disobedient confeds’ version,
obedience was much lower
• Attack the authority’s credibility
• Obedience relies on perceived legitimacy

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