Stanley Milgram's Compliance And The Stanford Prison Experiment

The film Compliance portrays a true story that draws a eerie connection to the Stanley Milgram’s experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment. It involves seemingly normal people committing horrible acts under social influence. However, the real setting of the story in the film versus the laboratorial conditions of the experiments entail the debate over the extent of their connection. While the results of experiments certainly provide insights into the possible social psychological mechanisms that drive film characters’ behavior, their different settings lead to considerable differences.
Firstly, the film characters seem heavily influenced by situational factors. For example, Sandra, the manager of the fast food store, proclaims herself during the interview that she identifies herself as a “victim” who is “brainwashed”. She defends herself by claiming that she does what she is “told to do”. Early in the film, Sandra …show more content…
However, certain measures can potentially reduce these influences. For example, the fact that over 70 such sexual assaults happened in fast food restaurants suggests this fast-paced and formulated work environment are situational factors that promotes these offences. Therefore, educating staff in fast food restaurants about how to deal with such situations can reduce the likelihood of such offences. Also, the obedience of participants in the Stanley Milgram’s experiment stems from their belief about the researchers’ authority as shown by a 17% drop in obedience level when the experiment was repeated in an office setting instead of the laboratory. Similarly, the film characters believe in the authority of the caller which lead them to follow his instructions. Therefore, educating people about legal procedures as well as cases like this help them better judge the authority of callers which can reduce the chance of them being deceived by