5. A New Definition of Obedience: Language and Rhetoric

About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we explore how a re-interpretation of the Milgram experiments in the context of language and rhetoric can lead us to a new definition of the concept of obedience itself, focusing in particular on: (i) Dr Gibson’s research on the audio recordings of Milgram’s experiments, held at Yale University; (ii) how this approach can raise important questions around the lack of standardisation within Milgram’s scientific procedure; (iii) the suggestion that the participants in Milgram’s studies did not obey the verbal orders they were given per se but were rather already persuaded to go along with the experiment by the overall institutional set-up; (iv) a new definition of obedience not as ‘social influence elicited in response to the orders of an authority figure’ but rather as ‘submission to the requirements of an authority figure, regardless of explicit verbal orders’.

Further reading:
Stephen Gibson, Arguing, Obeying and Defying: A Rhetorical Perspective on Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)

Course

In this course, Dr Stephen Gibson (York St John University) explores Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments. In the first lecture, we think about Milgram’s experimental procedure and the findings which resulted from his study. In the second lecture, we explore different variations of Milgram’s baseline study and think about the theory of the agentic state which he developed from his work. In the third lecture, we think about some early criticisms of Milgram’s method and ethics. Next, look at more recent studies which have sought to re-examine Milgram’s work in the light of archival records held at Yale University. In the fifth and final lecture, we explore how a re-interpretation of the Milgram experiments in the context of language and rhetoric can lead us to a new definition of the concept of obedience itself.

Lecturer

Dr Stephen Gibson has been at York St John University since September 2005, before which he undertook his doctoral research in the Department of Psychology, Lancaster University. His research uses discursive and rhetorical approaches to explore a range of social psychological topics, including citizenship, national identity, dis/obedience and representations of peace and conflict.