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The author conducted a partial replication of Stanley Milgram's (1963, 1965, 1974) obedience studies that allowed for useful comparisons with the original investigations while protecting the well-being of participants. 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's range, reasonable estimates could be made about what the present participants would have done if allowed to continue. Obedience rates in the 2006 replication were only slightly lower than those Milgram found 45 years earlier. 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 rates of obedience, but there was some evidence that individual differences in empathic concern and desire for control affected participants' responses.

Research on the social compliance procedure known as the foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique is reviewed. Several psychological processes that may be set in motion with a FITD manipulation are identified: self-perception, psychological reactance, conformity, consistency, attributions, and commitment. A review of relevant investigations and several meta-analyses support the notion that each of these processes can influence compliance behavior in the FITD situation. I argue that the combined effects of these processes can account for successful FITD demonstrations as well as studies in which the technique was ineffective or led to a decrease in compliance. The experimental conditions most likely to produce an FITD effect are identified.

Much research and theory suggests that an increase in perceived personal control is preferred and will result in positive reactions, whereas a decrease in personal control is not desired and will result in negative reactions. However, there are many negative as well as positive consequences to changes in personal control that contribute to one's reaction to increases in perceived control. 1 review research that identifies conditions under which increases in perceived control result in a tendency to relinquish personal control, negative affect, and a poorer performance on subsequent tasks. Three mediators are suggested for these effects. Changes in perceived personal control are said to result in changes in concern for self-presentation, changes in the perceived likelihood of obtaining desired outcomes, and changes in perceived predictability. Under certain conditions, each of these may lead to negative rather than positive reactions to increased control.