Milgram Shock-Study Imaginal Replication: How Far Do You Think You Would Go?

Online adult participants (N = 414) read a
gripping first-person account of the classic 1963 Milgram shock study and were
asked to predict the responses of both themselves and “the average
person”. Prior to making predictions,
half were told that 65% of participants exhibited complete obedience throughout
the duration of the original study, whereas another half were given no
information about the results. In
general, participants predicted much less obedience than was shown in the
actual Milgram study. In addition,
consistent with the better-than-average effect, participants predicted
significantly more personal disobedience in response to the scenario compared
to their average person predictions. Prior
knowledge of the Milgram study did not significantly impact participants’
predictions about their own behavior in an identical scenario. These results
suggest, in part, that being exposed to the findings of classic social
psychology studies may not have the intended impact in terms of changing
audience perspectives.