How sample was selected: Newspaper ads and direct mailing. Told they would be paid and would do memory test.
Brief procedure: Carried out at Yale. Volunteer and confederate in waiting room. Experimenter asks them to draw straws, rigged so volunteer always teacher. Volunteer told the other person (learner) is to learn word pairs. The teacher reads out word and four options and learner must say which option matches the first word. If they get it wrong teacher must give them electric shock. Shocks go up in 15V intervals and are increased with each wrong answer. Experimenter would prod learner to continue. There were 4 prods, if teacher still refused experiment over. There were no real shocks, reactions from learner heard only tape. Always same responses in same order.
Brief results: 26 of 40 went to 450V – definitely would kill, all went to 300V - potentially fatal. Predicted 1% would go to 450V. Conclusion – Americans just as obedient as Germans.
Theoretical Implications: Agency theory – 2 psychological states, 1 state we are aware and feel responsible for our actions in other – agency state – we feel like we are acting on behalf of someone else, like a tool so we don’t really think about what we do.
Practical Implications: Everyone is capable of doing ‘evil’ things because we are too obedient.
Ethics: Protection – participants were upset by their actions. Defence – were debriefed, interviews done 1 year on, no long term damage. Deception: told it was a memory test. Defence – was necessary to gain valid results. Informed consent: wasn’t informed. Defence – couldn’t be informed because of the deception necessary.
