eprintid: 10065467
rev_number: 16
eprint_status: archive
userid: 608
dir: disk0/10/06/54/67
datestamp: 2019-01-11 08:20:43
lastmod: 2021-10-18 00:21:23
status_changed: 2019-01-11 08:20:43
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Gonzalez-Franco, M
creators_name: Slater, M
creators_name: Birney, ME
creators_name: Swapp, D
creators_name: Haslam, SA
creators_name: Reicher, SD
title: Participant concerns for the Learner in a Virtual Reality replication of the Milgram obedience study
ispublished: pub
divisions: UCL
divisions: B04
divisions: C05
divisions: F48
note: Copyright: © 2018 Gonzalez-Franco et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
abstract: In Milgram's seminal obedience studies, participants' behaviour has traditionally been explained as a demonstration of people's tendency to enter into an 'agentic state' when in the presence of an authority figure: they attend only to the demands of that authority and are insensitive to the plight of their victims. There have been many criticisms of this view, but most rely on either indirect or anecdotal evidence. In this study, participants (n = 40) are taken through a Virtual Reality simulation of the Milgram paradigm. Compared to control participants (n = 20) who are not taken through the simulation, those in the experimental conditions are found to attempt to help the Learner more by putting greater emphasis on the correct word over the incorrect words. We also manipulate the extent to which participants identify with the science of the study and show that high identifiers both give more help, are less stressed, and are more hesitant to press the shock button than low identifiers. We conclude that these findings constitute a refutation of the 'agentic state' approach to obedience. Instead, we discuss implications for the alternative approaches such as 'engaged followership' which suggests that obedience is a function of relative identification with the science and with the victim in the study. Finally, we discuss the value of Virtual Reality as a technique for investigating hard-to-study psychological phenomena.
date: 2018-12-31
date_type: published
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209704
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1618058
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209704
pii: PONE-D-18-26919
lyricists_name: Slater, Melvyn
lyricists_name: Swapp, David
lyricists_id: MSLAT78
lyricists_id: DKSWA43
actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette
actors_id: BFFLY94
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: PLoS One
volume: 13
number: 12
article_number: e0209704
event_location: United States
issn: 1932-6203
citation:        Gonzalez-Franco, M;    Slater, M;    Birney, ME;    Swapp, D;    Haslam, SA;    Reicher, SD;      (2018)    Participant concerns for the Learner in a Virtual Reality replication of the Milgram obedience study.                   PLoS One , 13  (12)    , Article e0209704.  10.1371/journal.pone.0209704 <https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209704>.       Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10065467/1/journal.pone.0209704.pdf