Gibson, Stephen ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5648-7669, Blenkinsopp, Grace, Johnstone, Elizabeth and Marshall, Aimee (2018) Just following orders? The rhetorical invocation of ‘obedience’ in Stanley Milgram’s post-experiment interviews. European Journal of Social Psychology, 48 (5). pp. 585-599.

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Abstract

Recent research has begun to challenge the received idea that Milgram’s ‘obedience’ experiments are demonstrations of obedience as typically understood (i.e. as social influence elicited in response to direct orders). One key warrant for explaining the studies in terms of obedience has been the post-experiment interviews conducted with participants. The present study uses data from archived audio recordings of these interviews to highlight the extent to which participants used rhetorical strategies emphasising obedience when pressed by the interviewer to account for their behaviour. Previous research that has used these accounts as reports of underlying processes misses the extent to which they performed particular social actions in the context of their production. It is concluded that the standard social psychological version of ‘obedience’ is present in the experiments after all, but in a rather different way than is typically assumed – rather than an empirical finding, obedience is a participants’ resource.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	"This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gibson, Stephen and Blenkinsopp, Grace and Johnstone, Elizabeth and Marshall, Aimee (2017) Just following orders? The rhetorical invocation of ‘obedience’ in Stanley Milgram’s post-experiment interviews. European Journal of Social Psychology, which has been published in final form at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ejsp.2351/full This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving."
Status:	Published
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2351
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
School/Department:	School of Education, Language and Psychology
URI:	https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/2597

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