A behavioral study of obedience in children.

Using Milgram's original test of obedience, 192 Jordanian subjects were tested in a 2 X 2 X 3 design in which sex, two kinds of punishment instructions, and three levels of age groups (6-8, 10-12, and 14-16 years) were combined factorially. The instructions issued to the experimental group were identical to those used in Milgram's paradigm in that teacher subjects were asked to administer shock to confederate learners each time the latter made a mistake in a paired-associate task and to increase the shock level with each additional mistake. The subjects in the control group were given a free choice of delivering or not delivering shock each time the learner made a mistake. The results showed that 73% of all experimental subjects, as opposed to 16% of the control subjects, continued to deliver shock to the end of the shock scale. Neither age nor sex differences in obedience rate were found. However, significantly more obedient females than males reported that they punished the learners because they were obeying orders.