Obedience and dissent: situation and culture

Situational factors

Milgram's variations each changed one feature of the situation:

• Proximity of the victim: teacher and learner in the same room, full obedience fell from 65% to 40%; teacher forcing the learner's hand onto a shock plate, 30%.
• Proximity of the authority: orders by telephone (Experiment 7), obedience fell sharply.
• Location: rundown office in Bridgeport (Experiment 10), 47.5%.
• Status of the authority: an ordinary man giving orders (Experiment 13), 20%.
• Social support for dissent: when two confederate teachers refused, obedience fell to 10%.
• Reduced personal responsibility: when a confederate pressed the switches, obedience rose to 92.5%.

Culture

Milgram tested Americans, a Western, individualist culture. Replications elsewhere give a mixed picture:

• Replications in countries including the UK, Spain, Austria and South Africa found full obedience between 50% and 87.5%.
• Kilham and Mann (1974) found 28% full obedience among Australian participants, less than half of Milgram's figure.
• Shanab and Yahya (1978) found Jordanian children (aged 6 to 16) were as obedient as Americans, with 73% fully obedient.
• Blass (2002) calculated average obedience of 61% in US studies and 66% in studies from other countries.

Conclusion: obedience is high in many cultures, which suggests situational forces are widespread; but procedures differed between studies.

Evaluating cultural research

• Procedures were not identical (different victims, samples and prods), so differences may reflect method rather than culture.
• Most replications were in Western industrialised countries, so there are few data from Africa and Asia.
• Many of the studies are old, and ethics committees now prevent full replications, which is why Burger (2009) stopped at 150 V.
• Similar rates across countries argue against a strong cultural explanation.

Worked example

A cross-cultural replication finds 28% obedience while Milgram found 65%. Give two reasons, other than culture, why the figures might differ.

1. Different procedure: for example a different learner, script or set of prods.
2. Different sample: students rather than a cross-section of adults.
3. Different time period and awareness of Milgram's work.

Answer: Differences in procedure and sample (and time period) could explain the gap, not only culture.

Check yourself

1. Full obedience was 65% in the baseline and 30% in the touch proximity condition. What percentage of the baseline obedience rate remained? Give your answer to 1 decimal place.
   Show answer

   46.2 %. 30 / 65 x 100 = 46.2%.

2. Which variation shows that social support encourages dissent?
   • A confederate pressed the switches, and obedience rose to 92.5%
   • Two confederate teachers refused to continue, and obedience fell to 10%
   • The study was held at Yale, and obedience was 65%
   • Women were used as teachers, and obedience was 65%
   Show answer

   Two confederate teachers refused to continue, and obedience fell to 10%. Rebelling peers gave participants a model for refusing.

3. What did Kilham and Mann (1974) find in Australia?
   • Full obedience of 90%, much higher than Milgram's
   • No participants obeyed at all
   • Exactly the same rate as Milgram's
   • Full obedience of 28%, much lower than Milgram's
   Show answer

   Full obedience of 28%, much lower than Milgram's. They found 28% full obedience.

4. What did Blass (2002) conclude by comparing obedience studies?
   • Average obedience was similar in the US (61%) and in other countries (66%)
   • Obedience is much higher in individualist cultures
   • Obedience only occurs in Western countries
   • Women obey more than men in every culture
   Show answer

   Average obedience was similar in the US (61%) and in other countries (66%). Rates were similar, which suggests obedience is widespread.

5. Why is it hard to conclude that differences between cross-cultural obedience studies are caused by culture?
   • All the studies were conducted in the USA
   • Shock generators were not used in any replication
   • The studies used different procedures and samples
   • Culture cannot be measured at all
   Show answer

   The studies used different procedures and samples. Without identical procedures, method differences are confounding variables.

6. Explain why obedience fell when the teacher and learner were in the same room.
   Show answer

   The teacher could see and hear the learner's suffering directly, so there was no buffer and they felt more empathy and responsibility, so more of them refused.. Removing the buffer increased moral strain and personal responsibility.

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Psychology specification (issue January 2026)
• Pearson International A Level Psychology component guide: WPS01
• Lumen Learning (Simply Psychology text): The Milgram shock experiment
• IAL Psychology revision site: Factors affecting obedience

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.