Authority Knows No Gender – Gender Effects in Exerting Obedience in Milgram’s Experiment

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cris.lastimport.scopus2025-08-03T03:11:19Z
dc.abstract.enPrevious studies employing Milgram’s paradigm have reported no gender differences between “learners” and “teachers” in the administration and receipt of punishment. However, the potential influence of the experimenter’s gender on obedience remains underexplored. To address this gap, we conducted two studies. Study 1 was a laboratory experiment (N = 80) using the obedience lite paradigm. The results revealed no significant effect of the experimenter’s gender on compliance rates: 88% of participants complied with a female experimenter, compared to 90% with a male experimenter. Study 2 was an online experiment (N = 793) in which participants were asked to imagine receiving instructions from either a male or female professor to administer electric shocks. As in the laboratory study, the imagined gender of the authority figure had no significant impact on participants' reported willingness to obey. Across both studies, obedience levels were statistically equivalent regardless of the experimenter’s gender. These findings suggest that gender does not meaningfully influence obedience – whether in actual or hypothetical contexts – thus enriching our understanding of the gender dynamics underlying responses to authority.
dc.affiliationInstytut Psychologii
dc.affiliationWydział Psychologii we Wrocławiu
dc.contributor.authorGrzyb, Tomasz
dc.contributor.authorDoliński, Dariusz
dc.contributor.authorCantarero, Katarzyna
dc.date.access2025-06-23
dc.date.accessioned2025-06-30T07:13:24Z
dc.date.available2025-06-30T07:13:24Z
dc.date.created2025-04-28
dc.date.issued2025-06-23
dc.description.abstract<jats:p> Abstract: Previous studies employing Milgram’s paradigm have reported no gender differences between “learners” and “teachers” in the administration and receipt of punishment. However, the potential influence of the experimenter’s gender on obedience remains underexplored. To address this gap, we conducted two studies. Study 1 was a laboratory experiment ( N = 80) using the obedience lite paradigm. The results revealed no significant effect of the experimenter’s gender on compliance rates: 88% of participants complied with a female experimenter, compared to 90% with a male experimenter. Study 2 was an online experiment ( N = 793) in which participants were asked to imagine receiving instructions from either a male or female professor to administer electric shocks. As in the laboratory study, the imagined gender of the authority figure had no significant impact on participants' reported willingness to obey. Across both studies, obedience levels were statistically equivalent regardless of the experimenter’s gender. These findings suggest that gender does not meaningfully influence obedience – whether in actual or hypothetical contexts – thus enriching our understanding of the gender dynamics underlying responses to authority. </jats:p>
dc.description.accesstimeat_publication
dc.description.issue2
dc.description.physical85-97
dc.description.versionfinal_published
dc.description.volume56
dc.identifier.doi10.1027/1864-9335/a000575
dc.identifier.eissn2151-2590
dc.identifier.issn1864-9335
dc.identifier.urihttps://share.swps.edu.pl/handle/swps/1558
dc.identifier.weblinkhttps://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1027/1864-9335/a000575
dc.languageen
dc.pbn.affiliationpsychologia
dc.rightsCC-BY
dc.rights.questionYes_rights
dc.share.articleOTHER
dc.subject.engender
dc.subject.enobedience
dc.subject.enpower
dc.subject.ensocial influence
dc.subject.enMilgram’s experiment
dc.subject.enauthority
dc.swps.sciencecloudsend
dc.titleAuthority Knows No Gender – Gender Effects in Exerting Obedience in Milgram’s Experiment
dc.title.journalSocial Psychology
dc.typeJournalArticle
dspace.entity.typeArticle