Obedience To Authority Research Articles

Deception and Death in Medical Simulation

Medical simulation requires, by definition, a certain degree of “make believe.” The mannequin is not a real person, the scenario is not really happening, and no patients are either helped or harmed. Successful education in the simulated setting depends on skilled facilitators who can effectively per

“The last possible resort”: A forgotten prod and the in situ standardization of Stanley Milgram’s voice-feedback condition.

This article uses previously unpublished data from Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments to draw attention to a hitherto neglected procedural innovation of the voice-feedback condition. In 3 experimental sessions in this condition, the experimenter responded to a participant's attempted defiance by leaving the room, apparently to speak to the learner, before returning to assure the participant that the learner was willing or able to continue. This article documents the use of this tactic during the voice-feedback condition and highlights the negotiation surrounding the use of the tactic between Milgram and his confederate John Williams, who played the role of the experimenter. It is shown that the subsequent use of this tactic did not conform to the conditions for its use agreed by Milgram and Williams. Moreover, the tactic seems to have been dropped from both subsequent experimental conditions and Milgram's published accounts of his work. These observations are discussed in relation to historical work on experimentation in social psychology, research on standardization in the sociology of scientific knowledge, and in terms of their implications for theory and research on dis/obedience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Application of the nominal group technique and Delphi survey technique in modifying nursing standard of baccalaureate program

Objective To develop a nursing standard of baccalaureate program for Shanghai Jiaotong University to guide and improve the training quality of nursing students.Methods On the basis of literature review,the nominal group technique and Delphi survey technique were used to develop the standard.Results The training objective and the training plan included attitude,knowledge and ability constituted the standard.Conclusions The deficient of dominating personalities or obedience to authority which existed in traditional group discussion can be diminished in this study.The nominal group technique is a scientific and professional method for the construction and evaluation of nursing program. Key words: Nominal group technique; Delphi survey technique; Nursing baccalaureate; Training

Policing Students' Understanding of Obedience to Authority

Policing Students' Understanding of Obedience to Authority

Programmed Violence: On the Object of Media Studies

Each “new technology” inflicts “new violence” on its subjects. Following Marshall McLuhan's argument, this article outlines a theoretical frame for thinking about the relationship between violence and the media. Focusing on Stanley Milgram's experiment mentioned by McLuhan in his essay “The Violence of the Media,” it argues that violence not only is conveyed or represented by that medium but resides in the medium itself. Media add violence to our already violent culture not only by their content but by the very fact of their facticity. This raises the political question of the positioning of subjects toward, as well as by, the media and the epistemological question of what the object of media studies is.

Deception and informed consent in social, behavioral, and educational research (SBER)

Informed consent is the most essential part of research ethics. The requirement to explain an experiment to the participants who provide tissues/information in order to obtain their voluntary consent is absolutely necessary in any research project. It is an expression of respect regarding the autonomy of the person who participates in the experiment. Why and how is informed consent required and what if some information is intentionally withheld to facilitate the participation? This paper will briefly review the history of informed consent, discuss the components of an ethically valid informed consent and examine deception in research. Sometimes, deception is used in Social, Behavioral and Educational Research (SBER) in order to obtain accuracy information. Can this be justified? There is no doubt that, for some psychological and sociological experiments, the less the subjects know the better. The Bystander Apathy Experiment and the Milgram Experiment will be used here as examples that are discussed and analyzed. In general, deception is not acceptable in human studies. Occasionally, it is necessary to mislead the participants who are subjects of a study in order to obtain unbiased information. The Institute Review Board (IRB) must review very carefully the proposals that use deception or misrepresentation. The reasons that deception is necessary for the study purpose need to be justified in depth and there must be provision in the procedures to protect the participants. When the study is completed, it is essential that a debriefing by the investigator is provided that explains any deception or incomplete disclosure involved; this should also help the subjects to deal with any distress or discomfort experienced in the research.

Beyond Human Subjects: Risk, Ethics, and Clinical Development of Nanomedicines

Clinical testing of nanomedicines presents two challenges to prevailing, human subject-centered frameworks governing research ethics. First, some nanomedical applications may present risk to persons other than research subjects. Second, pressures encountered in testing nanomedicines may present threats to the kinds of collaborations and collective activities needed for supporting clinical translation and redeeming research risk. In this article, I describe how similar challenges were encountered and addressed in gene transfer, and sketch policy options that might be explored in the nanomedicine translation arena.

Milgram's obedience experiments: A rhetorical analysis

The present paper outlines a perspective on Milgram's obedience experiments informed by rhetorical psychology. This perspective is demonstrated through a qualitative analysis of audio recordings and transcripts from two of Milgram's experimental conditions: 'voice-feedback' and 'women as subjects'. Analysis draws attention to the way in which participants could draw the experimenter into a process of negotiation over the continuation of the experimental session, something which could lead to quite radical departures from the standardized experimental procedure, and points to the ineffectiveness of Milgram's fourth prod (You have no other choice, you must go on). These observations are discussed in terms of their implications for theory and research on dis/obedience, with a specific focus on the concepts of choice and agency and the nature and meaning of dis/obedience.

Examining Trust in Healthcare: a multidisciplinary Perspective

Examining Trust in Healthcare: a multidisciplinary Perspective

“Shocking” Masculinity: Stanley Milgram, “Obedience to Authority,” and the “Crisis of Manhood” in Cold War America

Stanley Milgram's study of "obedience to authority" is one of the best-known psychological experiments of the twentieth century. This essay examines the study's special charisma through a detailed consideration of the intellectual, cultural, and gender contexts of Cold War America. It suggests that Milgram presented not a "timeless" experiment on "human nature" but, rather, a historically contingent, scientifically sanctioned "performance" of American masculinity at a time of heightened male anxiety. The essay argues that this gendered context invested the obedience experiments with an extraordinary plausibility, immediacy, and relevance. Immersed in a discourse of masculinity besieged, many Americans read the obedience experiments not as a fanciful study of laboratory brutality but as confirmation of their worst fears. Milgram's extraordinary success thus lay not in his "discovery" of the fragility of individual conscience but in his theatrical flair for staging culturally relevant masculine performances.

Torture morale sur antenne 2 ?

The re-staging on Antenne 2 of the famous Milgram Obedience experiment as a reality television show (Zone Xtreme) reveals how an organizational system can abet an individual to torture another one to death only by using scientific and/or pedagogical arguments. We describe the mechanisms that keep somebody from identifying the different stages of psychological violence and sufferings inflicted and that can occur within some organizations.

Spinning an Organizational “Web of Obligation”? Moral Choice in Stanley Milgram’s “Obedience” Experiments

Drawing on unpublished documents from his personal archive at Yale University, this article explains how social psychologist and political scientist Stanley Milgram’s new baseline procedure both coerced and tempted most participants into completing his so-called Obedience to Authority (OTA) experiment. This procedure relies cumulatively on a range of manipulative and seductive psychological techniques that progressively and systematically induced most participants to pursue what they sensed to be a morally reprehensible course of action. The article examines a variety of influences at work in Milgram’s controlled laboratory that help understand how functionaries may resolve an moral dilemma in a bureaucratically organized work situation. In doing so, the article also provides an alternative explanation for Milgram’s new baseline findings, one that is more consistent with Bandura’s concept of “moral disengagement” and Barnard’s concept of an organizational “zone of indifference.” It concludes that Milgram’s experiments have less to do with obedience to authority per se and more to do with how people resolve moral dilemmas confronting them in a structured organizational setting.

Business ethics: a case study approach

Preface. Acknowledgments. CHAPTER 1 Introduction. Themes. Case Study: A CFO's Dilemma. CHAPTER 2 Why Are Ethics Critical? What Is the Objective? The Research. Stakeholder Approach. All Animals Are Equal, but ... A Two-Way Street. Uncle Sam. Toward a Workable Model. CHAPTER 3 Why Ethics Is Not Just about Corporations. Case Study: The Duke University Lacrosse Scandal. 20/20 Hindsight. The Burden of Expectations. Case Study: The United Way. A Broad Impact. CHAPTER 4 A Historical Review. The Ancient World. Greek Citizens' Code. Military Codes. Cardinal Virtues and Vices. Business Ethics in Times Past. Timbuktu. Case Study: Saint Thomas Aquinas. Case Study: Arthur Andersen. The Nature of Man. CHAPTER 5 Why Do People Behave Badly? Moral Development. Fraud Triangle. Propensity. Hierarchy of Needs. Case Study: Walt Pavlo. There but for the Grace of God. Broken Windows. Rending Moral Fabric. CHAPTER 6 Work Environment and Group Dynamics. Social Animals. Relative Ethics. Social Control Theory. Case Study: The Stanford Prison Experiment. Elements of Social Bonding. Case Study: The Milgram Experiment. Power, Authority, and Proximity. Positive Peer Pressure. CHAPTER 7 Leadership. Tone at the Top. Authenticity. Case Study: Vaclav Havel. Outside Perspectives. Case Study: The Smithsonian Institution. Leadership Bonding. CHAPTER 8 The Common Element-Trust. Prisoners' Dilemma. Trust. The Cost of Trust. Case Study: The Tylenol Poisonings. A Well of Goodwill. Case Study: Firestone-Ford Tire Recalls. Two Approaches. CHAPTER 9 Building an Army of Davids. Herding Cats. 1 Samuel 17. Breaking the Chains. Basic Principles. Evangelize. Case Study: Jordan's Furniture. Back to Maslow. Moral Hazard. Causes and Culture. CHAPTER 10 The Positive Power of Peer Pressure. The Gentleman at Dinner. Belief. I Fly SWA. Attachment. Commitment. Involvement. In the Trenches. Why Are We Doing This? The Whole Picture. CHAPTER 11 How to Develop Leadership. Fore! Case Study: Whirlpool and Leadership Development. Investing in the Future. Emerging Leaders. A Bias. CHAPTER 12 The Logic of William of Ockham. Law of Parsimony. Is It the Means or the Ends? The Whole View. All Organizations Are Businesses. Case Study: University versus Nation. All about Me. Case Study: Charles Ponzi and His Scheme. Enjoying the Kool-Aid. CEO and Trust. Feeding the Wolf. Index.

Is Situationism All Bad News?

Situationist experiments such as the Milgram experiment and the Princeton Seminary experiment have prompted philosophers to warn us against succumbing to fear of embarrassment and sliding down slippery slopes. Yet it would be a mistake to conclude that situationism is all bad news for moral agents. Fear of embarrassment can often motivate right actions, and slippery slopes can slide us away from wrongdoing. The reason that philosophers have seen situationism as bringing all bad news is that they have focused on the very demanding moral goals of virtuous and autonomous action, while ignoring important moral goals that are less demanding. Fear of embarrassment does undermine virtuous and autonomous action, but that very same fear can help us to act resolutely and rightly, and allows us to manipulate would-be wrongdoers into doing the right thing. This is good news.

The Milgram Experiments, Learned Helplessness, and Character Traits

The Milgram and other situationist experiments support the real-life evidence that most of us are highly akratic and heteronomous, and that Aristototelian virtue is not global. Indeed, like global theoretical knowledge, global virtue is psychologically impossible because it requires too much of finite human beings with finite powers in a finite life; virtue can only be domain-specific. But unlike local, situation-specific virtues, domain-specific virtues entail some general understanding of what matters in life, and are connected conceptually and causally to our traits in other domains. The experiments also make us aware of how easily unobtrusive situational factors can tap our susceptibilities to obedience, conformity, irresponsibility, cruelty, or indifference to others’ welfare, thereby empowering us to change ourselves for the better. Thus, they advance the Socratic project of living the examined life. I note a remarkable parallel between the results of the baseline Milgram experiments and the results of the learned helplessness experiments by Martin Seligman et al. This provides fresh insight into the psychology and character of the obedient Milgram subjects, and I use this insight to argue that pusillanimity, as Aristotle conceives of it, is part of a complete explanation of the behavior of the obedient Milgram subjects.

Who will act badly in toxic situations?

We examine whether individual differences exist in reactions to toxic situations, reviewing historical examples of massacres. The social psychological research on the question consists of the famous Milgram experiment on obedience and the Stanford Prison Experiment. Although these studies show the power of situations in eliciting aggression towards targets, they overlook an essential aspect of real world behaviours ‐ the innovation of imaginative sadistic sequences that go beyond the orders given. We argue that analogue studies are too limited to capture these situations and that social psychological research has been too limited in its assessment of key relevant individual traits, one of which is a potential for sadism. Furthermore, we raise concerns about whether ‘snapshot’ analogue research can capture the transitional processes central to an understanding of real world reactions to toxicity.

From New Haven to Santa Clara: A historical perspective on the Milgram obedience experiments.

This article traces the history of obedience experiments that have used the Milgram paradigm. It begins with Stanley Milgram's graduate education, showing how some aspects of that experience laid the groundwork for the obedience experiments. It then identifies three factors that led Milgram to study obedience. The underlying principles or messages that Milgram thought could be extracted from his experiments are then presented, and the evidence in support of them is assessed. Jerry M. Burger'srecent replication of Milgram's work--its place in the history of obedience research and its contribution to furthering the understanding of destructive obedience--is then examined.

The power of the situation: The impact of Milgram's obedience studies on personality and social psychology.

Few psychological studies, if any, can claim a legacy as imposing as the obedience studies of Stanley Milgram. Their impact was of notable consequence in the separate spheres of research ethics, research design, and theory in psychology, and they changed the ways that psychologists conceptualize and conduct their research. The authors discuss the legacy of these studies, especially as they effected dramatic changes in the fields of personality and social psychology. The article concludes with a discussion of what psychological science has lost in the aftermath of Milgram--high impact studies--and the salience that such research has in illuminating the most significant problems of our society, studies that could produce great human benefits.

Reflections on "Replicating Milgram" (Burger, 2009).

In "Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?" Jerry M. Burger reported a high base rate of obedience, comparable to that observed by Stanley Milgram (1974). Another condition, involving a defiant confederate, failed to significantly reduce obedience. This commentary discusses the primary contributions of Burger's study in terms of (a) its novel methodological variation on Milgram's original paradigm (the "150-volt solution") and (b) its attention to ethical concerns so as to minimize participant discomfort and ensure institutional review board approval. Burger's technique could unlock research on behavioral aspects of obedience, which has been essentially muted for several decades. However, Burger's intensive efforts to improve the ethics of the study may be exaggerated, are uncertain in their effectiveness, and pose impractical demands. Different procedures used by Milgram and Burger in the modeled refusal condition preclude a clear explanation for the results and challenge Burger's emphasis on the comparability of his and Milgram's experiments. This study documents the complexities of extending research on destructive obedience in the context of contemporary ethical guidelines.

Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today?

The author conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram's (1963, 1965, 1974) obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. Seventy adults participated in a replication of Milgram's Experiment 5 up to the point at which they first heard the learner's verbal protest (150 volts). Because 79% of Milgram's participants who went past this point continued to the end of the shock generator's range, reasonable estimates could be made about what the present participants would have done if allowed to continue. Obedience rates in the 2006 replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram found 45 years earlier. Contrary to expectation, participants who saw a confederate refuse the experimenter's instructions obeyed as often as those who saw no model. Men and women did not differ in their rates of obedience, but there was some evidence that individual differences in empathic concern and desire for control affected participants' responses.