... scientific experiment and the authority appeared to be academic experts at a top university, people would have trusted them and obeyed. In contrast Hofling et al's (1966) experiment, participants were studied to investigate obedience in American hospitals, they found that 21 out of 22 of the nurses obeyed an unknown doctor's telephone instructions to administer twice the maximum allowed dose of a drug. Warnings against such an action were clear, warnings on labels and the fact that the drug was not on the stock list for that day, they knew the amount they were to give would have been an overdose. A doctor is a clear authority figure, the nurses know that doctors object to nurses undermining their authority. They believed the responsibility for there actions would fall on the doctor as the doctor prescribed the drug, it could be said that the nurses were only following orders. However it ...

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