Burger’s Study

 In 2009, Burger decided to replicate Milgram’s study in contemporary society as he wanted

to see whether people would still obey an authoritative figure.
 Burger still believed that results of his experiment would produce similar results to
Milgram’s theory even though the time gap was quite large. This is because, he believed that
obedience remained the same despite the change of the society’s culture.
 Burger ensured that his study did not repeat the same ethical issues that Milgram had done,
therefore he adapted his experiment to meet the ethical guidelines expectations.

Screening procedure

 Advertisement for the experiment were since in local newspapers and local establishments
and online. It mentioned that individuals were promised $50 for participating in two 45-
minute sessions.
 Once, they got through to the participants, a screening procedure took place. Individuals
were asked if they studied psychology to check if they were aware of the Milgram’s study
and these people were rejected
 People were also asked if they had experienced a traumatic childhood experience and if so
they were also removed.
 Later, a second screening took place with the remaining participants and they had to
complete a number of questionnaires about themselves and later were interviewed to check
who would be negatively affected by the study.
 By the end of this, 76 people were invited back, but 6 dropped out due to 5 of them knowing
about Milgram’s theory. This left 29 males and 41 females, ranging from age 20-81 years, to
do the experiment.

Experiment 1

 The participants were split into 2 groups to equal out the genders. Then they were
introduced to the experimenter and the other confederate before starting. Both participant
and confederate were given $50 and were told they can keep it even if they withdraw from
the study. The learner was placed into the room next to the teacher and the experimenter
where the electric generator was
 Burger did exact same process of what Milgram did by reading out 25-word pairs and if the
learner got it wrong/ refused to answer they received an electric shock. The learner was
shown how to use the generator and also had a sample 15-volt shock
 Burger ensured that the similar scripts from Milgram was used and the same 4 verbal probs
were said.
 At the end of the experiment, each participant was told that the shock was not real and the
confederate was fine.
 Experiment 2

 In this variation, there were 2 confederates this time and the second confederate was posed
as a participant. The real participant was Teacher number 2, whilst confederate 1 was a
learner and the other was Teacher 1.
 To begin with Teacher 1 started the experiment by asking the questions and giving the
shocks to the learner, but at 75V, teacher 1 refused to continue so the experimenter asked
the real participant to continue.

Results

 Experiment 1 – 70% of participants had to be stopped before attempting to continue past

150 volts
 Experiment 2- 63.3% continued the procedure after 150 volts even though the confederate
refused to continue
 Burger found out there was not much difference in the obedience level with males and
females
 He discovered there was a little difference between those who had stopped and continued
with their empathy and control scores.
 Those who were reluctant to give shocks scored a higher desirability for control in the
bassline condition.

Conclusion

 Burger discovered that there was not significant change in the level of obedience despite the
time period and society change.