Shock treatment: using immersive digital realism to restage and re-examine milgram's 'obedience to authority' research

PloS One
S Alexander HaslamKathryn Millard

Abstract

Attempts to revisit Milgram's 'Obedience to Authority' (OtA) paradigm present serious ethical challenges. In recent years new paradigms have been developed to circumvent these challenges but none involve using Milgram's own procedures and asking naïve participants to deliver the maximum level of shock. This was achieved in the present research by using Immersive Digital Realism (IDR) to revisit the OtA paradigm. IDR is a dramatic method that involves a director collaborating with professional actors to develop characters, the strategic withholding of contextual information, and immersion in a real-world environment. 14 actors took part in an IDR study in which they were assigned to conditions that restaged Milgrams's New Baseline ('Coronary') condition and four other variants. Post-experimental interviews also assessed participants' identification with Experimenter and Learner. Participants' behaviour closely resembled that observed in Milgram's original research. In particular, this was evidenced by (a) all being willing to administer shocks greater than 150 volts, (b) near-universal refusal to continue after being told by the Experimenter that "you have no other choice, you must continue" (Milgram's fourth prod and the one mo...Continue Reading

References

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Dec 22, 2006·PloS One·Mel SlaterMaria V Sanchez-Vives
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Mar 4, 2011·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Stephen Reicher, S Alexander Haslam
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Nov 28, 2012·PLoS Biology·S Alexander Haslam, Stephen D Reicher
Mar 15, 2013·The Journal of Social Psychology·Virgil Zeigler-HillPatrick L Donohoe
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Citations

Dec 28, 2016·Social Studies of Science·P Wenzel Geissler, Ann H Kelly
Aug 30, 2018·The British Journal of Social Psychology·Stephen Gibson

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Software Mentioned

IDR

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