If you didn't see "Primetime" last night, you're going to wish you had.
They actually did a *replication* of the Milgram obedience experiment.
They used a social psychologist from U. Santa Clara (Berger?) as a
consultant and got approval of the procedure from the APA. The only
important change seems to have been that they limited the highest shock
to 150 volts, rather than 450, arguing that over 80% of people who went
to 150 in the original study, which is the point where the "learner"
demands to stop and refers to his heart condition, went on to 450.
What happened? 70% of the "teachers" gave the "learner" the highest
level of shock (67%, I think, in the original). They also did a
breakdown of men (n=18) and women (n=22): 65% of men and 73% of women
continued on to the highest shock level. They added an interesting twist
in some cases, where they used a second confederate as a co-teacher who
started the procedure, but then claimed not to be able to continue after
a certain point (expecting that this might serve as a moral model for
the real subject). The subject was asked to pickup where the confederate
had left off, and 63% of those went to the highest shock as well.
Plus ¨a change...
Regards,
Chris
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-5115 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
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