Obedience and Conformity
This week you read about several experimental and historical examples of when people were observed acting against their own will or conscience, given the right set of circumstances. There are also plenty of historical examples of those in power who took advantage of individuals’ obedience and conformity to social pressures or the pressures of authority.
Select 1 of the social experiments that you read about this week (Zimbardo, Asch, Milgram) and identify a current event or situation that similarly illustrates obedience and conformity. Like the social experiments you studied, the event you choose should also raise questions of ethics.
Write a
- Compare and contrast the experiment you selected with the contemporary situation.
- Identify the social roles of participants and what behaviors reflect those roles.
- Examine the specific behaviors of the participants.
- Discuss the internal and external consequences of the participants’ behaviors, for example, shunning, passivity, degradation, and insolence.
- Explain how social roles in the contemporary situation resulted in the outcome.
- Describe a realistic alternative scenario that could have resulted in a different, more ethical outcome for this situation. Relate this alternative scenario to a concept in social psychology.
Include a minimum of 3 sources.
Cite any sources to support your assignment.
Format your sources according to APA guidelines.
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Obedience and Conformity
Sample Introduction Paragraph
The dynamics of obedience and conformity remain central themes in social psychology, revealing how ordinary individuals can act against their own moral beliefs under certain circumstances. Among the most influential studies examining this phenomenon is Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiment, which exposed the alarming willingness of individuals to administer what they believed were painful electric shocks to others under the instruction of an authority figure.
A modern parallel to Milgram’s study can be seen in the case of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where employees conformed to organizational norms and authority directives, enabling unethical data collection and manipulation of voter behavior. This paper will compare and contrast Milgram’s experiment with the Cambridge Analytica case, analyzing how social roles, authority, and conformity influenced behaviors, the ethical consequences for participants, and how different choices could have led to more ethical outcomes. By exploring these patterns, we gain insight into the powerful role of social influence in shaping human actions.
