Obedience: Situational Variables

Proximity

• Obedience decreased to 40% when teacher could hear learner, and to 30% in touch proximity condition.

Location

• Obedience decreased to 47.5% when study moved to run-down office block.

Uniform

• Obedience decreased to 20% when 'member of the public' was the experimenter.

Research support

• Bickman showed power of uniform in field experiment.

Lack of internal validity

• Some of Milgram's procedures contrived, so not genuine obedience (Orne and Holland).

Cross-cultural replications

• Cross-cultural findings support Milgram.
• But almost all studies in similar cultures to USA so not very generalisable.

Evaluation extra

• Control of variables in Milgram's variations
• The 'obedience alibi'