Replicating Milgram Would People Still Obey Today?

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Bibliographic Details
Title: Replicating Milgram Would People Still Obey Today?
Language: English
Authors: Burger, Jerry M.
Source: American Psychologist. Jan 2009 64(1):1-11.
Availability: American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org/publications
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 11
Publication Date: 2009
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Adults, Well Being, Investigations, Empathy, Individual Differences, Compliance (Psychology), Social Behavior, Experiments, Models, Responses, Social Psychology, Gender Differences, Ethnicity
Assessment and Survey Identifiers: Interpersonal Reactivity Index, Beck Anxiety Inventory
DOI: 10.1037/a0010932
ISSN: 0003-066X
Abstract: The author conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram's (1963, 1965, 1974) obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. Seventy adults participated in a replication of Milgram's Experiment 5 up to the point at which they first heard the learner's verbal protest (150 volts). Because 79% of Milgram's participants who went past this point continued to the end of the shock generator's range, reasonable estimates could be made about what the present participants would have done if allowed to continue. Obedience rates in the 2006 replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram found 45 years earlier. Contrary to expectation, participants who saw a confederate refuse the experimenter's instructions obeyed as often as those who saw no model. Men and women did not differ in their rates of obedience, but there was some evidence that individual differences in empathic concern and desire for control affected participants' responses. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)
Abstractor: As Provided
Number of References: 34
Entry Date: 2009
Accession Number: EJ825163
Database: ERIC
Description
Abstract:The author conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram's (1963, 1965, 1974) obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. Seventy adults participated in a replication of Milgram's Experiment 5 up to the point at which they first heard the learner's verbal protest (150 volts). Because 79% of Milgram's participants who went past this point continued to the end of the shock generator's range, reasonable estimates could be made about what the present participants would have done if allowed to continue. Obedience rates in the 2006 replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram found 45 years earlier. Contrary to expectation, participants who saw a confederate refuse the experimenter's instructions obeyed as often as those who saw no model. Men and women did not differ in their rates of obedience, but there was some evidence that individual differences in empathic concern and desire for control affected participants' responses. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.)
ISSN:0003-066X
DOI:10.1037/a0010932