Question

Suppose you were designing an obedience study and wanted to reduce or lower the obedience rates found by Stanley Milgram. Which of the following would most likely generate the results you want?

1) compliance
2) acceptance
3) obedience
4) conformity

Answer 1

To reduce obedience rates in a study akin to Stanley Milgram's, one should adjust the experimental conditions to decrease the authority figure's perceived power or make the victim's presence more tangible.

Step-by-step explanation:

If you were designing an obedience study and wanted to reduce the obedience rates found by Stanley Milgram, you would want to focus on factors that are known to decrease obedience. Milgram's variations on his experiment revealed that obedience decreased when the victim's presence was more salient, such as when they were in the same room, or when their hands were touching the teacher's hands, and when the authority of the person giving the orders was reduced, such as when the orders were given over the phone. Other potential changes could include reducing the perceived legitimacy of the authority figure, increasing the presence of dissenting peers, or highlighting the moral choice at stake. None of the other options listed - compliance, acceptance, or conformity, directly address strategies for reducing obedience as much as manipulating the situational factors of the experiment itself.