Personality Predicts Obedience in a Milgram Paradigm

• DOI: 10.1111/jopy.12104
• Publication Date: 2014-05-06T02:19:36Z
• Authors: Laurent Bègue; Jean‐Léon Beauvois; Didier Courbet; Dominique Oberlé; Johan Lepage; Aaron A. Duke
• Keywords: Adult; Male; Torture; 05 social sciences; 150; Individuality; television; Middle Aged; 100; 16. Peace & justice; [SHS.INFO.MEDI]Humanities and Social Sciences/Library and information sciences/domain_shs.info.medi; jeu de la mort; obéissance; milgram; [SHS.INFO.MEDI] Humanities and Social Sciences/Library and information sciences/domain_shs.info.medi; Humans; Female; Interpersonal Relations; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; pouvoir social; Cooperative Behavior; expérimentation; Conscience; Personality

AbstractThis study investigates how obedience in a Milgram‐like experiment is predicted by interindividual differences. Participants were 35 males and 31 females aged 26–54 from the general population who were contacted by phone 8 months after their participation in a study transposing Milgram's obedience paradigm to the context of a fake television game show. Interviews were presented as opinion polls with no stated ties to the earlier experiment. Personality was assessed by the Big Five Mini‐Markers questionnaire (Saucier, 1994). Political orientation and social activism were also measured. Results confirmed hypotheses that Conscientiousness and Agreeableness would be associated with willingness to administer higher‐intensity electric shocks to a victim. Political orientation and social activism were also related to obedience. Our results provide empirical evidence suggesting that individual differences in personality and political variables matter in the explanation of obedience to authority.