Alternatives of the experiment of Milgram

Several alternatives of the experiment of Milgram was carried out, thus allowing, by modifying the situation, to define the true elements pushing a person to obey an authority which it respects and to maintain this obedience.

Proximity of the pupil

Several alternatives were carried out by modifying the distance between the subject and the pupil:

; Remote feedback The subject and the pupil are placed in distinct parts. The experimenter is with the subject and gives him the orders in case of doubt of this last. The subject does not see and does not hear the pupil and the answers of this last are provided through a control board. However, with 300 V the pupil tambourine on the wall and with 315 V it does not give any more an answer.

; Vocal feedback The difference in this alternative with that of the remote feedback is that the subject can hear the answers and protests of the pupil.

; Proximity The three protagonists are in the same part and the subject is with a few tens of centimetres of the pupil.

; Contact This alternative is identical to that of the proximity; the difference is that with 150 V, the pupil raises his hand so as not to be in contact with the plate giving the electric shocks. The experimenter asks then about maintaining of force the hand of the pupil in contact with the plate. The results show that the more learning it is far from the subject, the more obedience is important. This last feels less concerned if it is far away from the pupil, because it is not in direct contact with the consequences of its acts.

Importance of the authority

Three alternatives are installation in order to modify the importance of the authority taking into consideration subject:

; New environment This alternative always proceeds in the buildings of the University, but in a laboratory more modest than the precedent, where conduits of heating are visible with the ceiling. The conditions are the same ones as for the vocal feedback, except for the addition of the mention during the initial conversation between the three protagonists that the pupil suffers from a problem in the middle, but without gravity.

; Change of personnel The alternative change of personnel must make it possible to determine whether the aspect of the authority and the pupil has an importance. Two versions of this alternative are carried out. One with a dry experimenter which one does not want to really like and a pupil pain-killer and débonnaire, rather innocent in its aspect. The second alternative is completely the reverse.

; Absence of the experimenter In this alternative, during the experiment the experimenter receives a phone call and must in spite of him leave the part well where the subject is. But it indicates to him that the experiment must continue and its phone number in the event of questions or of problems leaves him.

; Office building in Bridgeport The authority is this time not represented by a professor of Université, the experiment even at first sight does not have any bond with any Université and seems organized by the Comité of search for Bridgeport , a factitious company created for the occasion. Whatever the importance of the authority, the level of obedience remains generally high. Only the alternative in the absence of the experimenter truly makes fall the rate of obedience and the mean level of the managed discharges. Moreover, certain subjects lie to the experimenter on the telephone, by managing discharges weaker than they would not have. Thus, they prefer to distort the experiment rather than to disobey in a more obvious way while announcing the experimenter than they refuse to continue.

Female subjects

Only one experiment was undertaken by choosing women for subjects. It produced identical results but with a stronger expressivity. It will be noticed that in 1972 a similar experiment (application of real electric shocks to Chien S) led by Charles Sheridan and Richard G. King obtained a complete rate of obedience among all women.

Role of the group

Until there, the subject is alone vis-a-vis the experimenter. This last has thus much to be able on the subject. The goal of these two alternatives is to see the role of a group of submitted vis-a-vis the experimenter.

; Two pars rebel In this alternative, four people present themselves for the experiment, the subject and three accomplices of the experimenter. A faked drawing lot indicates the subject like one of the three monitors, the accomplice remaining as always is indicated as the pupil. A monitor reads the words, the second says if the answer of the pupil is right, and the third (the subject) must operate the orders to send the electric shocks to the pupil if the answer is false. During the experiment, monitor 1 refuses to continue when with 150 V. the pupil complains and is put then in a corner of the part. The experimenter asks then about assuming the role of the first monitor. With 210 V, it is with the turn of the second monitor to rebel, the subject is found then obliged to assume the role of the two monitors.

; A par manages the shocks This time, the subject is not any more in the role of that which manages the electric shocks, it reads the words or declares if the answer is good or not. It is another person who handles the levers ordering the electric shocks. The role of the group is very important and can be the release of disobedience to a contrary order with the morals of the subject, as one sees it in the alternative where two pars rebel and where the rate of obedience is of only 10 %. It is interesting to note that many subjects gave up with 210 V, when the last accessory monitor refused to obey.

The capacity of the group is also very important in the other direction, where the Conformisme with the attitude of the group and the shared responsabilities cause a rate of obedience much more important than the simple order of the authority. Thus, psychologically, the subject does not feel guilty sufferings of the pupil, although its role is paramount in the chain leading to the electric shocks.

Social contract and personality of the subject

Two alternatives are carried out aiming on the one hand at determining if the commitments which the authority undertakes with respect to the pupil (the social contract) and their non-observance are determining in the obedience of the subject. And in addition, to determine if the subjects obey for sadistic reasons more than on order of the authority.

; Prerequisites with the participation In this alternative, when the pupil signs a discharge where it gives up continuing the University for the problems being able to occur, it mentions problem in the middle and asks the experimenter that it be released as soon as it asks it. And it is only in this condition that the pupil wants to sign the discharge. Arrived at 150 V, the pupil requires so that it be released, but the experimenter does not hold of it account and request about continuing.

; The subject chooses the level of shock Here, the experimenter presents to the subject the operation of the control board managing the discharges and says to him that it can use all the levels present at each bad answer. It of anything is not obliged to increase the electric shocks gradually. The rupture of the contract passed through the pupil with the experimenter influences little the obedience of the subject. Even if some very clearly mentioned that like reason of their disobedience.

When the subject is free to choose the intensity of the discharge, it is limited to the low powers. The average intensity is lower than 85 V, and to 40 people only one applies the maximum amount. Stanley Milgram from of deduced that, in the other alternatives, it is the obedience which explains the behaviors and not sadistic impulses.

Change of status

All the preceding alternatives of the experiment are carried out in order to modify the environment and the level of importance of the protagonists, but their was not amended. It is the goal of the following alternatives.

; The pupil asks to receive the shocks In this alternative, the roles will be reversed, it is the experimenter who asks about stopping by concern of the health of the pupil, but the latter, in spite of the cries which it pushes with each discharge, affirms that it wants to continue. Asserting that one of his/her friends took part in the experiment and that it held until the end and that if it did not arrive there, it would be wounded in its self-esteem.

; An ordinary individual gives the orders Until there, it is the authority which gave the orders, but in this alternative, the role of the authority passed to an ordinary individual, same statute as the subject. The procedure is the following: three people present themselves for the experiment to which two are accessory. The faked drawing lot designates an accomplice as raises and second aims to time the answers, the subject as for him must manage the electric shocks. The experimenter does not provide any instruction on the level of the discharges to be managed and during the experiment, it receives a phone call and must go away, but it announces that the experiment must continue. Some time later, the accessory monitor announces that it has an idea: why not increase the level of the electric shocks to each bad réponse ?

; The subject is spectator This alternative is identical to that where an ordinary individual gives the orders until a possible protest of the subject which refuses to manage the discharges. From there, the accessory monitor announces that it manages itself the electric shocks and that the subject stop watch.

; Authority in the role of the victim In this alternative, two people present themselves, but they were to be three. Following the defection of a pupil who did not present himself, the experimenter announces that it takes the place of the pupil, the accessory monitor and the subject take the same roles as in the alternative where an ordinary individual gives the orders. Arrived at 150 V, the experimenter requires to stop because he suffers, but the accessory monitor pushes the subject to be continued. When the pupil asks to receive the shocks, no subject obeys the pupil and they stop all as soon as the experimenter asks it. Because of the problems of credibility and owing to the fact that there was a too great upheaval of the situation, it is difficult according to Milgram to draw some the conclusions.

In the alternative where it is a person of the same statute which gives the orders, the rate of obedience undergoes a clear fall. Although this individual wanted to take again the role of the authority, it does not have it with the eyes of certain subjects.

When the subject is spectator, the rate of obedience finds an elevated level. That confirms the results of the alternative where the subject does not take part directly in the administraton of the electric shocks ( a par manages the shocks ). Thus, psychologically, it feels less responsible for the sufferings of the pupil.

Sat on the seat of the pupil, the authority is placed in a situation of inferiority, but it keeps all the same with the eyes of the subject the total control of the experiment, they stop all with its request. Certain subjects were even violent one in their refusal to obey to the accessory monitor, literally making it take off of the ground and threatening to strike it if it persisted in wanting to make suffer the experimenter.

Disorder within the authority

In the preceding alternatives, the orders provided by the authority are clear and nonambiguous. The subject thus does not have a difficulty in know what the authority awaits from him. These two alternatives are precisely intended to determine under which conditions, when the authority is fragmented between two people who are not agreement, the subject will reach its point of rupture with obedience to follow its conscience.

; Two authorities, contradictory orders

; Two authorities, one in the role of the victim

When the authority gives contradictory orders, the rate of obedience falls in a very clear way to be null. Before deciding what to make, the subject generally tries to determine which is the most legitimate authority, but not being able to find it, the subject follows the orders which are in conformity with its conscience.

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