In the same way obedience study also shows that people conform to pressure but in response to pressure from more direct orders issued by an individual, as said “obedience is the performance of an action in response to a direct order, usually the order comes from a person of higher status or authority” (Franzori1996). This is shown by a study by Milgram’s electric shock experiment (1963); this study was aimed to test the hypothesis “Germans are different” based on the atrocities committed during the Second World War. He was interested in how easy ordinary people could be led to inflicting harm on others. He decided to test ordinary Americans from all types of backgrounds and they were told that the research was into the effects of punishment and learning. The volunteers were told to give electric shocks of increasing voltage, up to 450 to a learner (actor), each time the learner made an error. The teacher believed he was giving electric shocks but this was not the case, the level of obedience was measured by the amount of volts given, which was on a scale of 15-450 V, each wrong answer increased by 15 V shocks. Milgram also asked 40 psychiatrists to predict the results, they predicted that less than 1% would go all the way and if any did they would be classed as psychopathic sadists. Milgram’s results were astonishing and the psychiatrists were very wrong. Obedience rates were way higher, two thirds of volunteers went up to 450 V, no one stopped before 275 results. Even Milgram was very surprised by this, no one expected to find so many people prepared to give 450 V shocks to a stranger. This concludes that obedience is due to situational factors rather than personality, people are compliant even thought they don’t agree, this contradicts the hypothesis. Milgram’s work was heavily criticized and upset many people, because they felt uncomfortable about what it showed about ordinary people, his study showed us a side that we do not find acceptable about humans and this is something that we would not like to admit ourselves. That in our society we easily obey commands from a powerless source of authority, even when these commands require to harm other people. This is a very scary thought to think that we humans are so easily lead by figures in authority, and that when we don’t even agree with what we are doing we still go ahead and do it. On the other hand one can argue that Milgrams study was set in an artificial setting, not a real life situation. But a study conducted by Hofling et al 1966, carried out a test on nurses in a more natural setting. The nurses were unaware that they were involved in an experiment. The nurses in a hospital were given orders by a doctor over the telephone to give a dose of medication that was above the maximum allowed. The medication was not real even thought they thought it was. Astonishing results once again, where 21 out of 22 nurses carried out this order. They exceeded the allowed dose, from instructions by phone, when clearly they were not to take instructions by phone. This clearly shows that they were easily influenced by an authority figure, but one could also say that they may have trusted the doctor to know better and sometimes a ‘doctor figure’ you would trust and one would be unwilling to question supposed authority. Perhaps such actions may be seen as ‘normal, even desirable because people performed them in obedience to legitimate authority’ (Kelman and Lawrence, 1972).
People do not necessarily behave like sheep as there is an element of an individually within all societies. A more accurate assumption is that personal surroundings at the time of any given event play a major part in determining people’s behavior. This is illustrated by a study conducted by Robert S. Baron Vandello and Brunsman (1996). In this study they showed a drawing of a person and asked the group to identify who that person was on a stimulated eye witness line up. In the incident a drawing was only shown for 0.5 seconds which obviously made it harder for the other person and in another instance it was shown for 5 seconds which made the identification easier. They then told half the other group that the results were not very important and the other half the results were very important. Then two assistants deliberately identified the wrong person before the rest of the group was asked to identify the individual. The results showed that in the incident that individuals were told that the results were very important, conformity was higher, than when they were told the results were not very important. The study concluded that people do conform when they want to be accurate especially when they are uncertain about themselves. Conformity levels are less when people are more confident about themselves and are more certain about the events around them. This proves that one factor which influences conformity levels is our desire to be accurate in our social setting.
Sheep are predictable animals, as they tend to form groups and remain within their group boundaries. In the same way this analogy can be related to human behavior as people try to stay within society boundaries. However human behavior is not as predictable and straightforward, and indeed sometimes sheep same as humans will also tend to stray from the flock.
The results of conformity studies and obedience studies would lead one to believe that individuals do behave like sheep and tend to follow the majority. However although this is true an extent but it is not entirely true. During these studies individuals have broken away from group influences and direct orders. Although very few individuals have done so it does not prove that human behavior can be very predictable and it is not fair to generalize about the impact of conformity and obedience. In our everyday lives many fashion trends come and go but not everybody wears the same fashion. In any given society there are strikingly different individuals. For example on one extreme you can have a person who is a member of a golf club and very posh and incomplete contrast in the same society you can have an individual with red hair, piercing and tattoos. As individuals we will do our own thing, but as proven by Asch in a group setting we can easily conform and lose our individuality in a group setting, and in contrast Milgram’s study, obey unjust orders, even when we don’t agree. In fact often criticisms of obedience studies such as Milgram’s are criticized because they show a different side of society. It is very difficult for humans to accept that we can easily be led. Therefore it is true that people do not like to admit they have been influenced in their decisions. Whereas from Sheriff and Asch research you can see conformity does exist, and the pressures towards conforming are very strong, some people resist them most of the time. In all conformity studies there have been individuals who have not yielded to group pressures. This is because people like to thrive on their own unique individuality and the desire to control over one’s life. I believe conformity is not so obvious because you are not ordered to do it, it is just done naturally, when we are influenced by our peers socially, and we do it to fit in and be accepted, we don’t realize what we are doing. In the same way not all people have been obedient when they have been ordered to do things. Whereas obedience exists in all societies and always has as we are obedient to the laws of the country, our parents at our work place and if society wasn’t there would be social chaos. If you were not obedient to these norms you would not be socially accepted. Studies have shown that obedience drops when support comes someone who with you is with you. The further away the person is who has given you the order the less obedience there is as there is no one who is pushing you to carry on, and the closer the victim is the more closer you feel socially attracted and there is more sympathy. In my opinion this is shocking that people will carry out cruel actions on any order when they are aware that they are inflicting harm on others. But I believe this is all to do with the situation you are in, Milgams study was in a very artificial setting, it had no connection to a true life experience, so the volunteers may not have believed that they were giving electric shocks just because somebody was answering a question wrong, I think that is a bit to extreme, as shocks are a extreme punishment just for an incorrect answer and they may have just gone along with what the experimenter wanted them to do, so it is difficult to conclude from this that people will inflict harm on others because they have been ordered to do so, it is not reflected on a real life situation. Whereas on the other hand when we go to war and we are given orders to inflict harm on others, we obey immediately and this is seen as the correct thing to do. So the situation you are in is a major factor of your actions in both conformity and obedience.
