William Atkins
Sunday, 21 December 2008 21:28
Science -
Biology
Page 4 of 5
In the 2000s, Dr. Burger discovered that the rates that teachers complied with the demands from the authority figure were only slightly lower than those found by Dr. Milgram in the 1960s.
Similar to Milgram, Burger found there was no difference between the rates of obedience in men and women.
Specifically, Burger found that 70% of the teachers continued past the 150-volt mark. Milgram had a 82.5% of teachers go past. A difference that Burger says is statistically insignificant.
The abstract stated,
“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, we could make reasonable estimates about what our participants would have done if allowed to continue. We found obedience rates in 2006 only slightly lower than what Milgram found 45 years earlier.”
And,
“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 rate of obedience, but we found some evidence that individual differences in empathic concern and desire for control affected participants’ responses.”
Burger stated,
“But what I found is the same situational factors that affected obedience in Milgram's experiments still operate today.” [ScienceDaily.com]
He added,
"Nearly four out of five of Milgram's participants who continued after 150 volts went all the way to the end of the shock generator. Because of this pattern, knowing how participants react at the 150-volt juncture allows us to make a reasonable guess about what they would have done if we had continued with the complete procedure." [ScienceDaily.com]
Conclusions are found on page five.
