The Social Psychology of Obedience Towards Authority: An Empirical Tribute to Stanley Milgram

167 Pages·2020·2.591 MB·English

by  Dariusz Dolinski, Tomasz Grzyb

THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF
OBEDIENCE TOWARDS AUTHORITY
This rich volume explores the complex problem of obedience and conformity,
re-examining Stanley Milgram’s famous electric shock study, and presenting the
findings of the most extensive empirical study on obedience towards authority
since Milgram’s era.
Dolinski and Grzyb refer to their own series of studies testing various hypothe-
ses from Milgram’s and others’ research, examining underlying obedience mecha-
nisms as well as factors modifying the degree of obedience displayed by individuals
in different situations. They offer their theoretical model explaining subjects’ obe-
dience in Milgram’s paradigm and describe numerous examples of the destructive
effect of thoughtless obedience both in our daily lives as well as in crucial histor-
ical events, stressing the need for critical thinking when issued with a command.
Concluding with reflections on how to prevent the danger of destructive obe-
dience to authority, this insightful volume will be fascinating reading for students
and academics in social psychology, as well as those in fields concerned with
complex social problems.
Dariusz Dolinski is Professor at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and
Humanities, Poland. He is editor of the Polish Psychological Bulletin and past President
of the Polish Association of Social Psychology, and of the Committee for Psycho-
logy of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
Tomasz Grzyb is Professor at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and
Humanities, Poland. He is currently serving as President of the Polish Society for
Social Psychology. He is a visiting lecturer in the NATO School Oberammergau
in Germany and the Multinational Peace Support Operation Training Centre in
Kilkis, Greece.

THE SOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGY OF
OBEDIENCE TOWARDS
AUTHORITY
An Empirical Tribute to
Stanley Milgram
Dariusz Dolinski and Tomasz Grzyb
Published in Polish as Posłuszni do bólu by Smak Słowa in 2018.
Translated by Matthew La Fontaine.
First published in English 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Published in Polish as Posłuszni do bólu by Smak Słowa in 2018.
Copyright © Dariusz Dolinski and Tomasz Grzyb, 2018. Published by
arrangement with Smak Słowa.
Copyright for English translation 2020 © Matthew La Fontaine
The moral rights of Dariusz Dolinski and Tomasz Grzyb to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections
77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-50321-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-50320-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-04947-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
1 Introduction: it happened in New Haven! 1
2 The what and why of Stanley Milgram’s experiments 6
3 How did Milgram do it? 14
4 Not just electricity 29
5 Why are they so extremely obedient? In search of
the psychological mechanism 38
6 Ethical dilemmas on the road to scientific truth 46
7 Multiple foot-in-the-door and obedience 52
8 Are you going to be less obedient if there is a real
possibility of the victim “repaying” you? 67
9 Would you electrocute a woman? 76
10 Individual differences and behavior during the experiment 86
vi Contents
11 What if we don’t pay them upfront? 103
12 I would have stopped sooner 111
13 What our program did and did not ascertain 120
14 A present-day man – an obedient man 128
15 What can be done to reduce the scale of
pathological obedience? 135
Conclusion 143
References 146
Index of surnames 154
Index of terms 157
PREFACE
Probably everyone learning about the results of Stanley Milgram’s studies on obe-
dience to authority experiences a shock. So did we. Although we studied psychol-
ogy in different times, we shared our astonishment that most people are capable of
shocking another human being with 450 volts of electricity for no other reason
than a professor of psychology told them to do so. Then, at first during subsequent
psychology courses at university, and later on in the course of independent study,
we learned more. And the more we learned, the greater our fascination. We posed
various questions, but for ethical reasons we were unable to answer them via the
empirical route. And, finally, in 2009 we read an article by Jerry Burger published
in American Psychologist. His text convinced us that studying obedience to authority
does not have to involve exposing participants to extreme levels of stress. Applying
the procedure suggested by Burger, we undertook a series of experiments whose
results we went on to present in various scientific journals. Anna Świtajska, an edi-
tor at the Polish publisher Smak Słowa, encouraged us to write a book about it. It
has been a tremendous pleasure for us to do so. While the cover only features our
names, it is the work of many more people, whom we wish to thank here.
Monika Mikołajczak played a massive role in the work of our studies – thanks
to her we knew who, where, and when to invite to our laboratory, for Monika
took charge and made sure that everything went smoothly even when events
were conspiring against us. Our studies also benefited greatly from the help of
our students: Michał Folwarczny, Patrycja Grzybała, Karolina Krzyszycha, Karolina
Martynowska, and Jakub Trojanowski. Their engagement and desire to assist
were crucial in several aspects of our experiments. We are grateful to professor
Łukaszewski, reviewer of the Polish version of the book, not only for his effusive
praise for our work, but also for the very thorough and fine-grain observations
that we have included in the final version of this book.
viii Preface
After several years we were presented with the offer to publish an English
translation of the book with Routledge. Naturally, we accepted this offer with
enthusiasm. The reviewers of the proposal for this monograph – Professor Maura
Pozzi and the second, anonymous, reviewer – helped us to understand what the
monograph was lacking, allowing us to include necessary elements. We wish to
thank them for their thoroughness, kindness, and constructive remarks. We were
well aware that the book we initially targeted the Polish audience with is very
much grounded in Polish reality, Polish history, and Polish culture. We felt that the
non-Polish reader, unfamiliar with the country, may find many fragments difficult
or even impossible to understand. We thus decided to undertake a thorough reed-
iting of the book. In a certain sense, the present volume is a work entirely different
from its prototype. The title is also different, because the original Polish “Posłuszni
do bólu” is a play on words simply untranslatable into English. We acknowledge
the National Centre of Science, whose grants (2018/29/B/HS6/00543) helped
make this book possible.
We wish to extend our gratitude to Eleanor Taylor, who has been instrumental
in constructively determining the shape of this book and successive deadlines
for work on it (which, we must admit, we at times failed to meet) and Saloni
Singhania, who took over for Eleanor for the second phase of preparing the book
for publication. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the techni-
cal side of the production process, particularly Production Editor Amelia Parker,
project manager Emma Critchley and copy-editor Ting Baker, with whom we
have had the pleasure of working directly.
We wish to extend a special thanks to Matthew La Fontaine, the translator of
this book. When reading literature translated from other languages into Polish, we
admire not only the craftsmanship of the authors, but also of their translators. The
same is true when it comes to scholarly writing. The proper translation of a scien-
tific volume requires not only fluency in two languages and felicity of expression,
but also familiarity with professional jargon, methodology, etc. We are convinced
that if something in this book does not sit right with the reader, it will be because
of our mistakes and not those of the translator.
Naturally, we wish to thank our wives and our children. Primarily for the fact
that – as they are, unfortunately, accustomed to – they did not hold it against us
when our work on this book meant we had no time for them.
Finally, we would like to thank the two most important groups. First, our
participants – everyone who responded to announcements in the newspaper
about studies being conducted on memory and allowed us to put them in a stress-
ful situation for a brief time. Without them, there would be neither those studies,
nor this book. Second, we thank our readers for their attention to this book.
Thank you.
1
INTRODUCTION
It Happened in New Haven!
It was December 20, 1984. New York was preparing for Christmas. Christmas
trees were out everywhere, people in shopping centers were being encouraged
to spend money by thousands upon thousands of adverts and countless Santa
Clauses whose characteristic red cap and suit were made tradition years ago by
the Coca-Cola company. While the majority of New Yorkers were shopping or
wrapping up presents, a certain 51-year-old man was heading towards the recep-
tion desk at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. Apart from his beard, there was little
that distinguished him. He was of average height and average weight. When he
finally reached the receptionist, he placed a piece of identification on the counter,
calmly introduced himself, and said that he suspected he had just experienced his
fifth heart attack. He was not mistaken. Despite coming to one of the world’s best
cardiological centers, and despite the fact that he was immediately placed under a
doctor’s care, a half-hour later he was dead. That was how the life ended of a man
whose experiments had shocked not only the psychology community, and the
scientific community, but, in fact, the entire world.
Stanley Milgram was born on August 15, 1933, as the second child of Jewish
emigrants from Eastern Europe. During World War I, his father emigrated to the
USA from Hungary, and his mother from Romania. A combination of chance,
talent, and hard work led him in his youth to come into contact with numerous
famous psychologists. As a student at James Monroe High School, one of his
classmates was Philip Zimbardo, who achieved fame two decades later as the
author of the Stanford prison experiment. Milgram himself began his university
education with a BA in political science, but had already taken an interest in
psychology. Pursuing his master’s degree, he worked as research assistant to the
team led by Solomon Asch, author of classic studies of conformity. Milgram was
fascinated by Asch and his approach to psychology, and Asch’s experiments on