Evaluate Milgram’s variation 10 – The run down office
The aim of Milgram’s run down office block variation was to investigate the effect of the situation in
particular location on obedience levels. Milgram moved his participants to a rundown office block in
the downtown shopping district of Bridgeport. Participants were told the study was being ran by a
private firm.
A strength of the procedure of this variation was that Milgram collected qualitative and quantitative
data in the form of audio recordings of the dialogue between the experimenter and the participant.
Further analysis of these recordings highlighted that those who challenged the experimenter early on
were more likely to disobey. This is important it enabled a deeper understanding of the different types
of resistance, therefore increasing the validity of the study.
Milgram found that 47.5% of the participants were prepared to shock to 450v which was lower than
the 65% in the original experiment, and Milgram concluded that context is an important situational
factor that affects levels of obedience.
A strength of these findings is that they can be used to help understand what situational factors will
lower levels of obedience. For example, people are much less likely to obey when not in prestigious
locations. This may be useful to encourage more people to defy destructive disorders in real life
settings, however like Milgram’s original experiment, there is cultural bias to the findings. His research
was still carried out in America and therefore ethnocentric and this is an issue because location may
not have an impact on a person from a different culture, thus reducing the generalisability.
In conclusion, by Milgram carrying out his variation this has led to a greater understanding of how
situation can have a large impact on whether a person will obey or disobey, the use of data type really
developed his study from his earlier variations. However, cultural bias still stands, and we need to be
careful when applying these findings cross culturally as people from different backgrounds may not be
influenced in the same way as in America.
The aim of Milgram’s run down office block variation was to investigate the effect of the situation in
particular location on obedience levels. Milgram moved his participants to a rundown office block in
the downtown shopping district of Bridgeport. Participants were told the study was being ran by a
private firm.
A strength of the procedure of this variation was that Milgram collected qualitative and quantitative
data in the form of audio recordings of the dialogue between the experimenter and the participant.
Further analysis of these recordings highlighted that those who challenged the experimenter early on
were more likely to disobey. This is important it enabled a deeper understanding of the different types
of resistance, therefore increasing the validity of the study.
Milgram found that 47.5% of the participants were prepared to shock to 450v which was lower than
the 65% in the original experiment, and Milgram concluded that context is an important situational
factor that affects levels of obedience.
A strength of these findings is that they can be used to help understand what situational factors will
lower levels of obedience. For example, people are much less likely to obey when not in prestigious
locations. This may be useful to encourage more people to defy destructive disorders in real life
settings, however like Milgram’s original experiment, there is cultural bias to the findings. His research
was still carried out in America and therefore ethnocentric and this is an issue because location may
not have an impact on a person from a different culture, thus reducing the generalisability.
In conclusion, by Milgram carrying out his variation this has led to a greater understanding of how
situation can have a large impact on whether a person will obey or disobey, the use of data type really
developed his study from his earlier variations. However, cultural bias still stands, and we need to be
careful when applying these findings cross culturally as people from different backgrounds may not be
influenced in the same way as in America.
