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After shock? Towards a social identity explanation of the Milgram ‘obedience’ studies
Author(s) -
Reicher Stephen,
Haslam S. Alexander
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.2010.02015.x
Subject(s) - milgram experiment , obedience , psychology , social psychology , identity (music) , perspective (graphical) , conformity , construct (python library) , variation (astronomy) , social influence , epistemology , aesthetics , philosophy , physics , artificial intelligence , computer science , astrophysics , programming language
Russell's forensic archival investigations reveal the great lengths that Milgram went to in order to construct an experiment that would ‘shock the world’. However, in achieving this goal it is also apparent that the drama of the ‘basic’ obedience paradigm draws attention away both from variation in obedience and from the task of explaining that variation. Building on points that Russell and others have made concerning the competing ‘pulls’ that are at play in the Milgram paradigm, this paper outlines the potential for a social identity perspective on obedience to provide such an explanation.