Bocchiaro et al (2012) - Responses to
people in authority
Background
Milgram (1974) found that
people have strong
inclinations to obey
legitimate authority,
irresponsive of their
beliefs, feelings or
intentions
In Milgram's study, 65% of participants inflicted
what they thought were lethal shocks to a
mild-mannered man, just because the man in the
'grey lab coat' told them to - an authority figure
This study uses Milgram's idea of getting an
authority figure to request immoral actions of
participants
But the study goes beyond, as it provides the
participants with the option of taking personal
action against an evil system - whistleblowing
Whistleblowing - when someone reports wrong
doing, usually used in the workplace or exposing
negative behaviour in college
The study was also aimed to replicate Milgram's
findings of a wide gap between peoples predictions of
their own and others degree of obedience and
disobedience, when contrasted with the actual
behavioural outcomes of the experiment
The researchers' interest in understanding the person
(individual) as well as the social (situational) nature of variations
in obedience and disobedience led them to collect a variety of
personality and values information from their participants
Theories on which the
study is based
Aims
To see how many people would comply with an
unethical request and how may people would
respond by whistleblowing to a higher authority
To compare actual rates of disobedience and
whistleblowing and estimated rates
To investigate the role of dispositional factors in
obedience, disobedience and whistleblowing
Hypothesese
There would be a higher percentage
of obedience than in Milgram as
people find it easier to inflict
psychological harm rather than
physical pain
There would be a lower level of whistle
blowing than disobedience because it
involves a potential direct confrontation of
the defiant person in authority
Individual (dispositional) factors will have a
weak relationship with the decision to obey,
disobey and openly defy authority
When people are asked to
predict their behaviour, a
substantial amount of people
would overestimate the
tendency to disobey and blow
the whistle
Similar to Milgram
participants
underestimated the
degree of disobedience
that would be shown
Contemporary study
"Scenario study"
No independent
variable
Data was
gathered on the
number of
participants who
obeyed by
writing a
statement in
support of the
sensory
deprivation
study
Snapshot study
Entire session
lasted
40minutes per
participant
Sample Details
149 Undergrad
Students
96 women, 53 Men
Mean age - 20.8
A total of 11
participants were
removed from the initial
160 - for suspiciousness
of the aim
So that demand
characteristics did not
affect the validity of the
data collected
Self-Selection
Participants
were recruited
by flyers posted
in the campus
cafeteria of the
VU University at
Amsterdam
They took part in exchange for
either 7 Euro's or course credit
To control the conditions,
so the procedure was
standardised - to give
legitimacy and authenticity
to the cover story