The Frequency and Composition of Interpersonal Tension in Stanley Milgram's Obedience to Authority Series

ABSTRACT The paper examines the frequency and composition of interactional tension between participants and the experimenter in 136 sessions across the four Conditions in the ‘Obedience to authority’ series closest to the classic ‘New Baseline’. Analysis shows that (1) interactional tension was widespread and regularly occurring during the sessions; (2) whilst not identical, obedient sessions and the obedient phase of disobedient sessions were similar in predominantly being composed of short non‐confrontative tension sequences, and in a lesser number of confrontative sequences that were similarly composed; (3) it was within disobedient sessions that significant differences could be found: the sequence of confrontation that was followed by no more shocks was longer than previous sequences of confrontation, and it was also largely composed of a type of utterance which was virtually absent during the obedient phase: categorical refusal. Such micro social context demonstrated neither the ‘blind obedience’ nor the ‘willing obedience’ Milgram's findings have traditionally been associated with. Instead, the discussion will argue that the act of shocking the victim needs to be contextualised by coercion and fear.