The Findings from Social Influence Research

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The Findings from Social Influence Research

Forty male volunteers from a self selected sample took part in a

controlled observational study, which they were deceived into thinking

was a test of learning. The naïve participant was always assigned the

role of 'teacher' and a confederate played the role of 'learner'. A

word association test was the learning task, and the naïve participant

was instructed to deliver an electric shock to the learner for each

incorrect answer. The teacher and the learner were in separate rooms

with no voice contact. The learner sitting in another room gave mainly

wrong answers and received his fake shocks in silence until they

reached 300 volts. At this point he pounded on the wall and then gave

no response to the next question. This was repeated at 315 volts and

from then on said/did nothing. If the 'teacher' asked to stop, the

experimenter had a set of 'prods' to repeat, such as saying, ' it is

absolutely essential that you continue ' or ' you have no other

choice, you must go on '.

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Milgram found that all participants gave shocks up to the 300 volt

level and 65% of participants continued to the highest level, 450

volts. This contradicted the predicted results that 3% or less would

reach 450 volts. There were marked effects on the naïve participants'

behaviour, with most showing signs of extreme tension. For example,

they trembled, sweated, stuttered, groaned and dug their fingernails

into their flesh.

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There were many ethical issues raised in this study, for example the

lack of informed consent, deception and debriefing. The participants

were deceived about the nature of the study. Milgram told his

participants that they were involved in a study of the effects of

punishment on learning. This therefore denied them the right to

provide informed consent. At the end of the study they were debriefed

about its true purpose ad introduced to the confederate to be

reassured that all was well.

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However Milgram argued that the experiment would be meaningless

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