Compliance Resulting from Anxiety Created by the Threat of Shock

Abstract

Subjects who were made anxious by the threat of shock exhibited greater levels of compliance in regard to agreeing to answer a questionnaire of very personal items than subjects not threatened with shock. A significant difference between the two groups was obtained by Fisher’s exact probability chi-square formula. The finding that anxiety alone produces compliance indicates that factors other than yielding of personal responsibility to authority may have contributed to previous findings regarding compliance.