Watch Clip 1 Watch Clip 2 Watch Clip 3

Conformity is essential to social life. But behind the familiar order of everyday life lurk some uncomfortable truths. Psychological experiments have shown that our desire to conform can lead us into mistrusting our own experiences, turning a blind eye to the suffering of others, and even inflicting harm on others. But these findings come at a price - the possible harm to those being studied. Should psychologists be doing this type of research?

This programme explores some of the key ethical issues arising from psychological research into obedience and conformity. It is divided into three self-standing sections.

1: Obedience

We begin by looking at obedience and conformity in everyday life. Then we examine Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments, looking at the work's origins in the holocaust, and its methods and findings. We conclude by asking whether this research should have been done.

2: Ethics in Action

This section is focused around a proposed student research project into bullying that, if it is to work, involves both deception and lack of consent. Drawing on the project, student experiences and expert analysis, we see what is meant by an ethical issue in research, why ethics are needed and the tests that can be applied to evaluate ethical issues.

3: Ethics rule. O.K.?

Our students decide they cannot do the project on ethical grounds. But are ethical constraints preventing important psychological research from being done? The final section considers the balance between ethics and data generation, and the benefits and costs of greater ethical regulation of research.