A Peer Administers Shock: A Brief Summary

Summary
The main difference between the original Milgram study and the “A Peer Administers Shock” variation was shift in responsibility. Instead of the experimenter placing full responsibility on the participant of whether to shock the victim or not, the experimenter gave the participant the option of placing the responsibility onto someone else. From there the participant would either decline or obey. If they carried on the participant then acted as a teacher and instructed another participant (a confederate) to press the lever on the shock generator. At the end of the study, 95% of the participants obeyed and instructed the confederate to shock the victim to the maximum 450 volts. For those who chose to disobey, they mostly decided to do so between the “strong” and “very strong” levels of shock.
To see the effects on obedience when the experiment was conducted in a less prestigious location, Milgram conducted the baseline experiment in a run down office building. In this variation, the main location of the experiment was moved from Yale University to a run down office building in Bridgeport, CT. The study followed the same experiment procedures but differed in the fact that the participants were led to believe that the experiments were being used as research for a private firm. Participants acted as the role of the teacher and were asked

In most situations, a person must believe in the legitimacy of an authority figure to obey to their orders. The change of location to a run down office building reduced the legitimacy of authority so participants were less likely to obey. In another variation of Milgram's study, the experimenter’s attire was changed from a uniform to everyday clothing. This situation also reduced the participants belief in the legitimacy of the experimenter and led to more participants not