Question

In Stanley Milgram's classic studies of obedience, teachers in a staged experiment were instructed to administer shocks to learners when they made mistakes. A large percentage of the teachers obeyed the experimenter and administered strong levels of shock to the learners. When this experiment is described, most people judge the obedient participants to be aggressive, cold, and unappealing, and they fail to recognize the role of social forces in behavior. The mistaken judgement is due toA. deindividuationB. the fundamental attribution errorC. a self-serving biasD. groupthinkE. psychological reactance

Answer 1

Answer: The correct answer is B. The fundamental attribution error.

Explanation:

The fundamental attribution error can be understood at the tendency that people have to undermine the influence that the context has over individuals' behavior and instead emphasize on the perceived personal characteristics such as personality, character, of such individuals to explain said behavior.

In this particular case, most people judge the obedient participants to be agressive, cold and unappealing and they fail to recognize the role of social forces in behavior. The participants in reality weren't cold or agressive, they were just being forced to elicit certain behaviors.

In conclusion, the tendency that people have to explain behaviors from the perceived personal characteristics which in turn is a mistaken judgement is called: B. The fundamental attribution error.