Aim: To create a more realistic study of obedience than Milgram’s by carrying out field studies on nurses who were unaware that they were involved in an experiment.
Method: Nurses in a hospital were given orders from a ‘doctor’ over the telephone to administer a dose of medication above the maximum allowed. The nurses were watched to see what they would do. The medication was not real, though the nurses thought it was.
Results: 21 out of 22 (95%) nurses were easily influenced into carrying out the orders. They were not supposed to take instructions by phone, let alone exceed the allowed dose (The drug was a placebo).
When other nurses were asked to discuss what they would do in a similar situation, 21 out of 22 said they would not comply with the order.
Conclusions: Hofling demonstrated that people are very unwilling to question supposed ‘authority’, even when they might have good reason to.