1. Resisting
Pressures to Obey
Individual differences

2. Individual differences found by
Milgram
• As part of his research on obedience, Milgram (1974)
noted the background characteristics of those taking
part in order to find out which characteristics were
consistent with higher or lower obedience.
• Age, marital status, occupation and military
experience had little influence on the person’s ability
to resist the commands of the experimenter.
• However, educational history and religious
preference did.
• Less-educated participants were less likely to resist the
experimenter commands than those participants with
at least a college degree.
• Likewise Roman Catholic participants were more
likely to obey the experimenter than were Protestant
participants.
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3. Insights from Milgram’s studies
• In Milgram’s study of
obedience, a high
proportion of participants
gave the maximum 450v,
yet others defied the
experimenter’s
instructions and withdrew
before this point.
• Milgram found that when
the experiment was
moved away from the
prestigious setting of
Yale University to a
downtown office, more
people felt able to resist
authority. This tells us
that STATUS is a key
factor in
obedience/resistance.
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4. Insights from Milgram’s studies
• Resistance was also
increased when the
victim could be
seen, or when other
confederates were
present.
• This shows us that
being made aware
of the effects of
your actions and
having social
support are means
of increasing
resistance.
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5. Moral considerations
• One of Milgram’s colleagues, moral philosopher
Lawrence Kohlberg (1969), presented a group of
Milgram’s volunteers with a set of imaginary moral
dilemmas.
• These dilemmas determined not so much what people
would do in situations like Milgram’s shock
experiment, but WHY they would behave in that way.
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6. Moral considerations
• Kohlberg found that • The American civil
those who based their rights leader Martin
decisions on more Luther King argued
general moral that laws are only
principles (e.g. the valid insofar as they
importance of justice are grounded in
over social order), justice, and that a
were more defiant in commitment to justice
the Milgram study, carries with it an
while most of those at obligation to disobey
a more restricted level unjust laws.
of moral development
obeyed the
experimenter
completely.
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7. Martin Luther King
and Social Justice
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8. Social Heroism
• In his book, The • Social heroism
Lucifer Effect (2007) involves putting
Zimbardo suggests oneself at risk in
that while the pursuit of an
majority of humanity important principle.
is bowing to an unjust • It may be very costly
authority, the few in terms of lowered
who resist are really social status, loss of
heroes. credibility and in
• In this context, heroes some cases, even
are those people who arrest, torture and
are willing to make even death.
sacrifices for the good
of others in society.
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9. Social Heroism• The best-known ‘hero’ is
probably Nelson
Mandela, imprisoned for
36 years for his resistance
to government apartheid
policies in South Africa.
• A less well-known ‘hero’
is Michael Bernhardt, the
US soldier who refused to
obey orders to shoot
unarmed civilians in the
My Lai massacre during
the Vietnam war in which
nearly 500 Vietnamese
died at the hands on the
US troops.
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10. Michael Bernhardt: Social Hero?
• When interviewed by Kohlberg, Bernhardt
claimed:
• “I can hardly do anything if I know it is
wrong. If I think about it long enough, I am
just positively compelled.”
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11. Zimbardo’s beliefs
• Zimbardo believes a key
factor that encourages heroic
action is stimulation of the
‘heroic imagination’, a
mental orientation that
makes people more likely to
act ‘heroically’ when the
time comes.
• This involves imagining
facing potentially risky
social situations, struggling
with the hypothetical
problems these situations
raise, and considering one’s
likely actions and their
consequences.
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