Defying Unjust Authority: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This research explores the psychological factors potentially involved in fostering disobedience to an unjust authority. Our paradigm was modeled after that of the Utrecht Studies on Obedience (Meeus and Raaijmakers European Journal of Social Psychology 16:311-324, 1986) in which participants are ordered to give each of 15 increasingly hostile comments to a participant/victim whenever he fails a trial. Although 30% of our sample followed commands to insult the other participant (confederate), the majority did refuse to do so at some point in the escalating hostility sequence. Our procedure utilized conditions known from prior research to increase the ratio of disobedience to obedience: proximity of teacher to learner plus remote authority. In order to better understand some of the cognitive and affective processes that may predict such defiant behaviour, we utilized a variety of measures, among them, behavioural observations, individual difference assessments, and in depth post-experimental interviews.

A Cross‐Cultural Comparison of Studies of Obedience Using the Milgram Paradigm: A Review

“…While it is, perhaps, an exaggeration to say – as has a blogger (Stone, 2011) in a recent post to a non‐psychological blog – that the obedience research “has long passed into modern folklore,” the research is clearly one of the best‐known psychological experiments of our time. Over the past 50 years, its impact has continued unabated – not only within psychology (e.g., Bocchiaro & Zimbardo, 2010; Lunt, 2009; Russell, 2010), but also beyond the field’s confines: One can see its continued influence in domains as diverse as, say, law (Perlman, 2007 1 ), music (Williams, 2008) fiction (Kidd, 2008), and television fare (e.g., Nick, 2010).…”

Destructive Obedience Without Pressure

“…In order to test the role of the coercive pressure in the obedience process, we used a role-playing version of the administrative obedience paradigm. Moreover, participants and the victim were face-to-face in the same room (e.g., Bocchiaro & Zimbardo, 2010).…”

Conformity, Obedience, Disobedience: The Power of the Situation

“…From that point on, social researchers interested in exploring the mechanisms of obedience have relied upon their creativity to set up experimental paradigms able to minimize participants' emotional strain. Electric shocks were then replaced with verbal insults (Bocchiaro & Zimbardo, 2010;Meeus & Raaijmakers, 1986), the real victim with a puppy (Sheridan & King, 1972) or with a (female) virtual human (Slater et al, 2006), and the intimidating laboratory settings with more familiar, real world ones (Bickman, 1974;Hofling et al, 1966 What did Burger find 45 years after Milgram? Despite the important historical and cultural changes that have occurred over four decades, the power of authority figures to claim people's allegiance and obedience remains very strong: 70% of participants obeyed until the end.…”

“…More recently, Bocchiaro and Zimbardo (2010), through a research paradigm modeled after that of the Utrecht studies (Meeus & Raaijmakers, 1986), tried to cast some light on the psychological factors involved in fostering disobedience. In this study, the participant, called "coach", was asked to assist a "performer"(confederate) in solving a sequence of syllogisms.…”