Milgram's experiments show how is the authority of the source important: the “laboratory brutalities” made by people influenced by the authority in this experiment hopefully don't need any comment or additional explanation.
The last factor mentioned in Latane's Social Impact theory is the number of sources or according to the second principle the number of targets. In our experiment we manipulate just the number of targets variable. We use two experimenters demanding compliance in control group from one subject and in the experimental group from two subjects. We measure the willingness of the subjects to comply to our demand, which was a simple request to spend a little time answering some questions. HYPOTHESIS:
H0:
The willingness of two subjects to comply with two experimenters int experimental group will be equal to that of one subject to comply to the same two experimenters in control group.
H1:
The assumption is that the willingness of two subjects to comply with two experimenters in the experimental group would be smaller than willingness of one subject to comply with them in the control group.
DESIGN:
The experiment was designed as a field experiment in Bratislava. In control condition two experimenters demand compliance from one subject and in the experimental condition the same two experimenters demand compliance from two subjects. The independent variable was number of subjects and dependent variable was whether they comply to the experimenters demand or not. PARTICIPANTS:
In the experiment participated two students of psychology as the experimenters. Subjects examined in the control group were 31 alone persons and in the experimental group 31 pairs. It was not important how is the pair set up.
PROCEDURE:
This experiment was performed in Bratislava on the rather quiet street. Two male experimenters, students of psychology, came up to the subjects with question: ”Hello. We need your help for the research of the opinions on the teacher profession. Can you spend few minutes for us?“ If they comply, the experimenters asked them another question, but it had no use, it was only because the experimenters have to ask them something when they firstly demand it from them. Measured were only they reactions to the first question. RESULTS:
The results supported the hypothesis. In the one subject (control) condition was the subject more likely to comply with two experimenters than in the two subjects condition. The values collected are in Table 1.