WHAT ARE INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN OBEDIENCE & PREJUDICE?
Individual Differences refers to variables that make one person different from another.
The social theories of obedience tend to ignore these individual differences, concentrating instead on processes that are universal and apply to everyone. Instead of focusing on the minority of people who disobey, social psychologists like Milgram concentrate on the obedient majority and draw conclusions from them. Social theories explain how individuals may receive different levels of social force from other people, leading to different degrees of social impact and therefore different levels of obedience. However, there may be some people whose personalities make them naturally inclined towards obedience or disobedience.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Culture includes all the behaviours and beliefs (cognitions) that you learn by growing up in a particular community. Cultural variables include things like:
You can imagine that in a highly deferential culture, it is harder for people to go against authority figures; in a strongly individualistic culture, it may be easier. Modern Western culture is considered to be very individualistic but non-deferential (although back in the 1960s when Milgram did his experiments, it was rather more deferential). In a "face saving" culture it is important for people not to be shamed by failing at something and this might make people more obedient. In cultures which strongly values justice, a person might feel an obligation to obey if they've previously signed a contract or received a payment; they might feel less worry about obeying if the 'victim' seems to deserve punishment (by getting the answers wrong, in the case of Milgram). DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES
A stereotypical view would be that young children are particularly submissive, with disobedience rising during the rebellious teenage years, then people becoming more obedient as they get older.
But is this really true? And what about the other stereotype, that young children tend to be "naughty", that teenagers are very conforming and that older people have the confidence and wisdom to object to immoral orders? Milgram used participants between the ages of 20 and 50, but he never analysed his results by age group. Shanab & Yahya (1977) replicated Milgram's study with children and teenagers at the University of Jordan. They compared 6-8 year-olds, 10-12 year-olds and 14-16 year-olds but didn't find any statistical differences in obedience between the age groups. 73% went all the way to 450V, slightly higher than Milgram's baseline result of 65%. Yup. Shanab & Yahya put six year-olds through the Milgram study. Whew!
Not put off by making children cry, Shanab & Yahya replicated the experiment again, a year later, with even more shocking (!) conclusions... This suggests there is no great change in obedience with age - or perhaps different factors associated with age cancel each other out (eg teenagers are less respectful of authority but lack the confidence to disobey a direct order).
GENDER DIFFERENCES
You might expect gender differences in obedience. Maybe females are raised to be more compliant and follow instructions better than males. Alternatively, maybe females are less likely to follow aggressive instructions - this ties in with some biological views about aggression.
Or perhaps these two factors cancel each other out? Variation #8 tested 40 women and Milgram compared the results with the baseline study of men. The results were the same, with 65% going to 450V.
PERSONALITY DIFFERENCES
Milgram's Variation #5 was the "empathy" variation, where Mr Wallace mentioned having a heart condition and, at 150V, started complaining about chest pains. More participants dropped out 150V, long before Mr Wallace went silent at 300V. However, participants who continued after 150V seemed to feel they had “passed a point of no return” and continued all the way to 450V, so overall the results were similar to the baseline study.
Burger (2009) uses this variation as the basis for his Contemporary Study. He also tested participants for "empathy" and "autonomy" (need for control) beforehand. Empathy scores didn't make any difference to obedience but autonomy scores did. Burger concludes that people who have a psychological need to be in control of their own lives may be slightly more disobedient. However, being empathic (sensitive to other people's feelings) doesn't make you likely to disobey cruel orders. In terms of personality traits, high E individuals would have the temperament to rebel against authority and high N individuals would be unsuited to following orders (because they don't learn easily), therefore a Neurotic Extrovert would be most likely to disobey.
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OTHER DIFFERENCES: THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
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Theodor Adorno (1950) and his colleagues at Berkeley University offered an explanation for obedience to the Nazis and the Holocaust based on the Authoritarian Personality type. Authoritarian personalities respect authority figures but also delight in being an authority figure: they obey their superiors without question, but they bully and oppress their followers in turn.
Adorno suggests that people with Authoritarian Personalities are drawn to beliefs like Nazism and tend to get promoted quickly in Nazi-style organisations. The team at Berkeley created a questionnaire called the F-Scale (F for "Fascism") to measure the Authoritarian Personality. |
AUTHORITARIAN CHARACTERISTICS
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Adorno offered a psychodynamic (Freudian) explanation for the Authoritarian Personality.
- Such people have a strong id but a weak ego: they are driven by powerful antisocial urges.
- They also have a strict super-ego that makes them feel guilty and ashamed.
- When authority figures give them immoral orders, they can act out their wicked desires without guilt.
- They use a defense mechanism called projection and project their sense of shame and weakness onto people who have less power than them, which is why they love giving orders and being bullies.
People with Authoritarian Personalities are terrified of being weak, which is why they despise people who are weaker than them. They repress their own urges most of the time, which is why they are disturbed by free-spirited individuals who act on their feelings. This is why authoritarians tend to pick on non-conformists, homosexuals and hippies. This type of personality theory is often used to explain homophobia.
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The protest singer Woody Guthrie had the message "THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS" on his guitar. How cool is that?
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Milgram’s assistant Alan Elms (Elms & Milgram, 1966) tested the 20 most obedient and the 20 most rebellious participants from Milgram’s first 4 experiments. Elms used Adorno’s F-Scale questionnaire. He found that those who tested highest on the F-Scale gave more shocks and held the shock buttons down longer than those who were low scorers.
APPLYING THESE FACTORS TO OBEDIENCE
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Click on the image to read an inspirational article about Gangsline. Follow the link to the Gangsline website.
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Psychological research suggests that young men and young women are equally at risk from the pressure to follow orders from gang leaders (except, perhaps, in Australia!). This might explain the rise in young women joining violent gangs.
If there are personality factors in obedience, these could be identified early. The F-Scale could be used to test school children for the Authoritarian Personality. Those who score particularly highly could be targeted for counseling and support to stop them joining gangs. This idea is supported by Shanab & Yahya (1977) who found that obedience stayed quite constant between 6 and 16.
EVALUATING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN OBEDIENCE/PREJUDICE (AO3)
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EXEMPLAR ESSAY
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