Obedience to Authority in a Laboratory Setting: Generalizability and Context Dependency

Abstract

Social psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted an empirical, laboratory study of obedience to authority. Milgram suggested that his study and findings have applications and implications for the diverse forms of obedience to authority in political and social life, since he had captured in the laboratory experiment the essence of obedience to authority. This article finds serious reasons for rejecting any facile generalizing from the laboratory setting to the larger world of authority relations. Among such factors are the face-to-face character of Milgram's ‘authority’, the role of manipulative techniques and etiquette, the impoverished notion of legitimacy with which Milgram operates, and the likely influence of background beliefs on the part of subjects in the value of science and scientists. The examination of the generalizability problem then moves to a comparison of the American findings on obedience with similar studies in Australia and West Germany. Finally, the article suggests an alternative theory of obedience in the American setting, and speculates on why Milgram and his associates ‘obeyed’ the ‘dictates' of a laboratory experiment.