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Article

Social Psychological and


Personality Science
Would You Deliver an Electric Shock 1-7
ª The Author(s) 2017
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in 2015? Obedience in the Experimental sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1948550617693060
Paradigm Developed by Stanley Milgram in spps.sagepub.com

the 50 Years Following the Original Studies

Dariusz Doliński1, Tomasz Grzyb1, Michał Folwarczny1, Patrycja Grzybała1,


Karolina Krzyszycha1, Karolina Martynowska1, and Jakub Trojanowski1

Abstract
In spite of the over 50 years which have passed since the original experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram on obedience, these
experiments are still considered a turning point in our thinking about the role of the situation in human behavior. While ethical
considerations prevent a full replication of the experiments from being prepared, a certain picture of the level of obedience of
participants can be drawn using the procedure proposed by Burger. In our experiment, we have expanded it by controlling for the
sex of participants and of the learner. The results achieved show a level of participants’ obedience toward instructions similarly
high to that of the original Milgram studies. Results regarding the influence of the sex of participants and of the “learner,” as well as
of personality characteristics, do not allow us to unequivocally accept or reject the hypotheses offered.

Keywords
conformity, obedience, social influence

Experiments conducted by Milgram (1963, 1965), in which the woman (“the learner”) reacting in real time to electric shocks.
study participant is encouraged by the experimenter to admin- Another idea for creating an ethically acceptable procedure to
ister an electric shock to another person, are generally consid- examine obedience was to assign unpleasant descriptors to rel-
ered to be one of the most important (if not the most important) atively pleasant images (Haslam, Reicher, & Birney, 2014).
in the field of social psychology (e.g., Benjamin & Simpson, The researchers prepared a series of 30 pictures sorted on the
2009; Blass, 2004). The entire series of experiments carried out basis of their attractiveness (beginning from the least pleasant
by Milgram (1974) demonstrated that under conditions of pres- to the most pleasant). The participants’ task consisted in
sure from an authority, the majority of people will carry out his selecting from among four negative adjectives the one which
commands even when they are informed at the beginning that best described a given image. It should be noted that while the
they have the right to end their participation in the experiment pictures became increasingly attractive as the study contin-
at any time, while the information placed on the device used in ued, the adjectives remained negative, which led to increasing
emitting electric shocks states unequivocally that it can damage discomfort on the part of the participants. In the opinion of the
the health of the “learner,” or even kill him. experiment’s designers, this procedure was to evoke a dis-
Following the publishing of Milgram’s work (1963, 1965), comfort similar to that experienced by participants in the orig-
there were discussions in the psychological literature concern- inal Milgram studies. It should be noted that we may have
ing the ethical aspect of such experiments (e.g., Fischer, 1968; serious doubts regarding the extent to which this procedure
Kaufmann, 1967). While a few replication experiments were really reflects the realism of the Milgram experiments and
carried out in the 1970s in various countries (e.g., Kilham & whether the impact of authority on obedience is what has
Mann, 1974; Shanab & Yahya, 1978), further work within this
paradigm was then halted.
1
Naturally, an attempt was made at finding various alterna- Faculty of Psychology in Wrocław, SWPS University of Social Sciences and
tives to direct replications of the original Milgram studies. For Humanities, Wrocław, Poland
example, Slater et al. (2006) conducted an experiment in which
Corresponding Author:
the “electric shock” was administered not to a living human but Tomasz Grzyb, Faculty of Psychology in Wrocław, SWPS University of Social
rather a computer-generated avatar. Participants in this experi- Sciences and Humanities, Ostrowskiego 30b, 53-238 Wrocław, Poland.
ment were seated in front of a screen displaying a picture of a Email: tgrzyb@swps.edu.pl
2 Social Psychological and Personality Science

essentially been tested here. One thing is certain: Since the decrees. The primary and secondary school curricula also mar-
original experiments by Stanley Milgram, we have yet to find ginalized the role of such ideas as individual freedom and the
a successful way of reconciling realism with care for the right to decide about one’s own affairs (Hodos, 1999; Naimark
well-being of study participants. & Gibianskii, 1997). However, the year 1989 marked a sea
A few years ago, however, Burger (2009) noted that in the change for the entire region. The understanding reached by the
original studies by Milgram, a decisive majority of people who communist authorities and anticommunist opposition initiated
pressed the 10th button (33 people of 40) could then be con- a rapid series of changes across all of Eastern Europe. Free
vinced to press all of the remaining ones (26 people of 33). press, democratic elections, and free speech became the norm
He thus arrived at the conclusion that conducting an experi- (Petersen, 2001; Rothschild and Wingfield, 2007). However,
ment in which participants would be encouraged only to press in recent years we have observed a surge in the popularity of
10 successive (and not 30 successive) buttons would, on the the political party named “Law and Justice” [Pol.: “Prawo i
one hand, significantly reduce their level of discomfort, while Sprawiedliwość”], which won an absolute majority in the last
on the other it would allow for a direct comparison of obedi- parliamentary elections. In both the verbal arena and in its
ence in pressing the 10th button and, indirectly, that is through actions, this party values governing with a strong hand rather
performing an appropriate estimate and comparison of total than freedom and democracy. Its efforts to limit the role of
obedience. Burger asked himself the question of what level democratic institutions and eliminate pluralism in the media
of obedience would be recorded in the United States almost a have met with extensive social approval (public opinion polls
half-century after the Milgram experiments. He thus replicated show this party with support remaining stable at over 30%).
Experiment No. 5 in which the alleged learner reports heart This all means that both the historical experiences of Poles
problems at the beginning of the experiment, and before the and the current political situation may have a complicated
10th shock is administered he demands the halting of the and opaque impact on obedience levels. By the same toke,
experiment, again reminding those present of his health prob- we felt it would be interesting to replicate the Milgram
lems. It turned out that 70% of Americans could be induced experiment in this country.
to press the 10th button, which led Burger (2009) to the conclu- Besides, we also took advantage of introducing a factor into
sion that “average Americans react to this laboratory situation the experimental design that had previously never been tested
today much the way they did 45 years ago” (p. 9). to a satisfactory extent.
In our study, we decided to apply the empirical scheme of Discussion of Milgram’s experiments in the psychological
Milgram (1974), Experiment 2 with Burger’s (2009) idea of literature generally oscillates around consternation at the uni-
using only 10 buttons. It is worth emphasizing that Milgram versal nature of people’s pliability. For example, emphasis is
noted almost identical reactions by the participants in Experi- placed on the fact that the sex of participants in experiments
ments No. 2 and No. 5 (the 10th button was pressed by 34 of on obedience is not a factor that differentiates their reactions
40 in Experiment 2, and 33 of 40 in Experiment 5, and while (see Blass, 1991, for review). When considering the role of sex
button 30 was pressed by 25 participants in Experiment 2, and in experiments carried out in the Milgram paradigm, we turned
26 in Experiment 5). Experiment 5 has been more frequently our attention to something entirely different. However, before
replicated around the world than Experiment 2, but for the sole we say what that was, let us take a look at three typical descrip-
reason that it is more spectacular and its results are more shock- tions of Milgram’s experiment that can be found in the psycho-
ing. From the perspective of estimating obedience levels, both logical literature.
paradigms are, however, equally valid, while ethical considera-
tions argue for the choice of Experiment 2 in which people are 1. “Participants sat in front of an imposing shock genera-
not encouraged to administer an electric shock to an individual tor and were instructed to administer an electric shocks
suffering from heart problems and who demands that his partic- to the learner for each incorrect answer” (Burger, 2009,
ipation in the experiment be concluded. p. 1).
Our objective was to examine how high a level of obedience 2. “Who among us was not surprised and sobered to learn
we would encounter among residents of Poland. It should be that 65% of his subjects delivered the full series of
emphasized that tests in the Milgram paradigm have never been painful and escalating shocks to an innocent partner?”
conducted in Central Europe. The unique history of the coun- (Gilbert, 1981, p. 690).
tries in the region made the issue of obedience toward authority 3. “First, of course, is the unexpected enormity of the basic
seems exceptionally interesting to us. After World War II, findings themselves—that 65% of a sample of average
which began with Germany’s attack on Poland in 1939 and American adult men were willing to punish another per-
concluded in 1945, the countries located in Eastern Europe son with increasingly higher voltages of electric shock”
were made dependent on the Soviet Union, while the commu- (Blass, 1991, p. 398).
nist system was forced on them. One of the foundations of that
system was significant curbs on democracy and the demand of We have no doubt that the intention of these and other
strict obedience to authority. The official press used censorship authors writing about experiments on obedience toward author-
to develop an impression of the authorities’ infallibility and ity is not to present a false picture of reality, but it is worth
moral legitimacy to ruling through the use of orders and noting that the confederate is defined here using words which
Doliński et al. 3

are devoid of biological sex (learner, “partner,” and “person”); were always of the same sex, which did not allow for a deter-
meanwhile, in nearly all studies on obedience carried out under mination of whether the sex of the person to be zapped with
the Milgram paradigm the learner who was allegedly being electricity influences the obedience of participants. In the study
electrified was a man. by Slater et al. (2006), participants were asked to put on 3-D
Existing empirical data thus demonstrates that study partici- stereo glasses and then instructed to administer a shock to a vir-
pants are inclined to administer a shock to a man sitting behind tual woman appearing on the screen. The absence in the study
a wall. However, it is not clear whether the behavior of partici- design of conditions in which the learner was a virtual man also
pants would change in conditions in which the experimenter prevented evaluation of the role played by the sex of the person
instructed them to give the shock to a woman. Why do we think inflicting pain (albeit virtual) in the degree of obedience.
that the sex of the learner in experiments performed in the Mil- The issue of the role that the student’s sex may play remains
gram paradigm may be significant? therefore an open question, requiring empirical exploration. In
Because women are physically weaker and more susceptible our experiment, we decided to include 80 participants (40 of
to physical violence than men, in accordance with cultural each sex). For an experiment performed within the Milgram
norms they should be treated more favorably and gently than paradigm, this is an exceptionally large number. However,
men (Anderson, 2000; Muller-Funk, 2012). This assumption we are aware that it may also be too small for a definitive
is supported in the results of meta-analyses of experiments understanding of the role played in obedience toward authority
regarding altruism, which show that women receive assistance by sex of the participant and the sex of the learner.
from others more often than men (Eagly & Crowley, 1986;
Piliavin & Unger, 1985), as well as meta-analyses of experi-
ments concerning aggression, which show that it is more preva-
Procedure
lent in conditions where its target is a man than when Participants were offered Polish złoty (PLN) 50 (equivalent to
aggression should be directed at a woman (Eagly & Steffen, around US$15) for about an hour’s time participating in psy-
1986). It could be assumed that results will be similar in the chological research “dedicated to memory and learning.” They
case of experiments carried out in the Milgram paradigm. were recruited in one of two ways. Some of them were
Administering an electric shock is an obvious violation of the approached on the street, near the university. Others were
norm to refrain from harming an innocent person. Shocking a acquired with the help of students of the university, who
woman with electricity, however, is also an infringement of the recruited participants from among their acquaintances who
norm to treat people with greater leniency who belong to vul- were not students of that institution. Those eliminated from
nerable groups. It is therefore a more urgent violation of cul- the selection procedure were individuals who had taken a psy-
tural norms than shocking a man with electricity. We also chology course as students, as well as those who responded to
think that the sex of the learner will be of particular signifi- a question about familiarity with psychological experiments
cance when the participants are males. Traditional European in a manner indicating they may have come across a descrip-
and North American norms (collectively “Western”) assume tion of the Milgram studies. People who had ever sought the
that men are obliged to behave nobly toward women, and thus assistance of a psychiatrist or psychologist, who had experi-
to avoid causing them harm, both in word and in deed (Genov- enced some trauma, and those who had episodes of alcohol
ese, 2000; Girouard, 1981). or drug abuse in their history were all eliminated. The age
On the other hand, in some milieus there are cultural of participants ranged from 18 to 69 with M ¼ 27.36 (standard
norms which hold that men should treat women as their deviation ¼ 11.07).
inferiors and require obedience and pliancy (Crowell & After arriving to the psychological laboratory of the univer-
Burges, 1996; Fontes & McCloskey, 2011). This, in turn, sity, participants and the confederate (the latter pretending to
would mean that male participants in an experiment con- be a participant) completed two or three questionnaires.1 Sub-
ducted within the Milgram paradigm would not have any sequently, the experimenter explained that the study would
problem with administering an electric shock to a woman address the impact of punishments on learning and memory
who made a mistake in answering. processes and required a division into the roles of learner and
The issue of the learner’s sex as a determinant of obedience teacher. He gave the participants PLN 50 for their participation
is complex and warrants empirical study. Meanwhile, we are in the experiment, and then requested that they draw lots for
aware of only three experiments in which the learner was a their role by selecting one of two pieces of paper. Each of them
woman. In the first one (Constanzo, 1976), sex of the learner contained the word “teacher,” but the confederate (a man or a
was manipulated. No evidence was obtained for the influence woman depending on the experimental conditions) announced
of this factor on the level of obedience. However, this study that he or she had selected the paper with the word learner. The
was never published, the experiment was conducted four experimenter asked the participants to sign an informed con-
decades ago, the procedure employed was significantly modi- sent form for participation in the experiment. The form stated
fied from the original one as applied by Milgram, and the that the participant could interrupt participation in the study
cohort of participants consisted exclusively of university stu- at any moment. The experimenter additionally emphasized that
dents, which may also have known one another. In the study any decision to do so would not require the return of the com-
by Shanab and Yahya (1977), the participant and the learner pensation paid for participation. The trio then proceeded to the
4 Social Psychological and Personality Science

laboratory, where the experimenter showed the generator


(identical in appearance to the one used by Milgram) and
explained that the learner’s role would consist in learning by
heart associations between certain syllables, and then handed
the learner a piece of paper containing eight pairs of syllables
while leading him or her into a neighboring room (because
we did not have access to the original list of words used by Mil-
gram, we decided that the best approach would be to use sylla-
bles, as they are neutral in content). He then returned, handed
the teacher a list of 45 pairs of syllables written in a different
order than those on the paper received by the learner, and then
explained that the teacher’s task was to read one syllable and
wait for the learner’s response. If the response was correct, the
next syllable was to be read. If incorrect, the teacher was to
wait for the experimenter’s instructions. The experimenter also
demonstrated the device’s functioning, showing the teacher
that pressing particular levers would activate a shock of elec-
tricity measuring from 15 V to 450 V (a picture of the replica
of Milgram’s device as used in the experiment is located in the Figure 1. Number of participants who finished withdrawal from
experiment on particular levers.
Online Appendix). To demonstrate the functioning of the
device, the experimenter administered a shock of 45 V. Next,
the experimenter attached electrodes to the learner’s wrist in The experiment was conducted by one of two experimenters
the presence of the participant. The experimenter asked the (either a male in his mid-30s or one in his mid-50s). The role of
study participant to sit at the generator, and then himself sat the learner was assigned to one of two women in their mid-20s
approximately 3 m from the participant. He then instructed the or one of two men in their mid-20s.
participant to read the first syllable. The learner responded cor- The experiment was conducted after receiving approval
rectly, and the participant then read the following syllable. The from the departmental ethics commission (Decision No.
learner did not make a mistake in this and in the following 2014/E/02/2), which, following a thorough analysis and con-
attempts, until the seventh syllable, when he erred. The experi- sideration of the benefits that could result from the study, gave
menter instructed the teacher to press the first lever. Next, the its approval and oversaw how it was conducted. An important
learner gave a few proper responses but then made a mistake element in the procedure was the detailed and painstaking
with the 10th syllable. The experimenter instructed the teacher debriefing held individually with each participant following the
to press Lever No. 2. The next mistake occurred with Syllable conclusion of the experiment. During this debriefing, partici-
No. 13 and led to the instruction to press the third lever. Suc- pants were told of the details of the procedure, apologized for
cessive impulses of electricity (following successive mistakes being deceived at the start of the experiment as to its objectives
that occurred at numbers 15, 18, 22, 24, 27, 31, and 34) resulted and course, and they received an explanation of why it was
in screams of increasing pain from the learner. These screams done in that way. Each conversation was conducted by a qual-
were recorded and played back at appropriate moments. If the ified clinical psychologist and lasted from several to several
teacher vacillated, the experimenter exhorted him or her using dozen minutes. Participants were also informed that if they had
similar prompts to those applied by Milgram (1974): “Please any further questions or concerns about the course of the study,
continue,” “The experiment requires that you continue,” “It is particularly if they felt any discomfort about their own partic-
absolutely essential that you continue,” and “You have no other ipation, that they should get in contact using a special telephone
choice, you must go on.” A note was made of the moment when number provided to them.
the participant refused further participation in the experiment, as
well as whether any doubts were expressed that required the
experimenter to deploy one of the aforementioned messages.
Results
Just after the participant pressed the 10th button (or refused Because initial analyses demonstrated that neither the manner
to continue the experiment), the experimenter asked the ques- in which participants were recruited nor the person of the
tion “Do you think it hurts?” This was a way of making sure experimenter, the female learner, or the male learner had any
that the participants were aware of the real pain being adminis- impact on the structure of results, these factors were not taken
tered to the person in the neighboring room. All the partici- into account in further analysis. Dominant majority of the par-
pants, save for one man who expressed doubt as to whether ticipants pressed the 10th (the last in this variant of Milgram
the person sitting behind the wall was being shocked by elec- experiment) lever. Exact number of participants who finished
tricity, responded in the affirmative way. The individual who on particular levers is shown in Figure 1.
spoke of doubts was removed from the pool of results and The overall sample size is 80, and the observed proportion
replaced by another man. of participants who pressed the 10th button is 90% (this is also
Doliński et al. 5

Table 1. Information About Participants Expressing Doubts in the


Course of the Study.

Sex Age Number of Prompts Switch Number Decision

Male 35 4 5 Stop
Female 58 4 5 Stop
Female 21 4 6 Stop
Male 26 4 7 Stop
Female 24 4 7 Stop
Female 26 4 8 Stop
Female 44 4 9 Stop
Female 25 4 9 Stop
Male 19 1 8 Continue
Male 35 1 6 Continue
Male 26 1 9 Continue
Male 23 2 5, 9 Continue
Male 20 2 6 Continue
Female 25 1 9 Continue
Female 26 3 5 Continue
Female 33 1 8 Continue
Female 23 1 6 Continue
Female 24 1 9 Continue
Female 21 2 9 Continue
Figure 2. Sex of the “learner” and obedience. Female 20 1 6 Continue
Female 23 2 8 Continue
the effect size). The 95% confidence interval (CI) is from
83.43% to 96.57%. to think about reactions, or to select from among the options
We also examined the impact of the learner’s sex on obedi- available. In our experiment, participants demonstrated such
ence. Results are displayed in Figure 2. It is worth remarking total obedience that we achieved a ceiling effect, making it
that although the number of people refusing to carry out the exceptionally difficult to demonstrate the influence of any
commands of the experimenter was 3 times greater when the moderators of the dependent variable. From a certain perspec-
student was a woman, the small sample size does not allow tive, it is worth drawing attention to the interesting proportion
us to draw excessively far-reaching conclusions. (This result of refusals to continue the experiment in the case of differences
was not statistically significant, Wald w2 ¼ .341, df ¼ 1, p ¼ in the learner’s sex. When it was a woman being “zapped,” par-
.559, Cohen’s d ¼ .13.) ticipants were 3 times more likely to withdraw from the experi-
Because of the very low percentage of people resigning ment (regardless of their own sex). However, the fact that only
from further participation in the study, we decided to also ana- 10% of our participants failed to perform all of the experimen-
lyze the doubts raised by participants during the course of the ter’s commands means that this difference is far from statisti-
experiment. In Table 1, we have correlated information about cally significant.
sex, age, and the moment of withdrawal (or expression of Our results can thus not serve as grounds for definitive con-
doubt) of each person who did not demonstrate total obedience clusions on the role of learner sex in the experiment—with all
toward the experimenter’s instructions. certainty the results allow for the declaration neither that such
an impact is present nor that it is not present. However, in our
view the results are worth noting and may provide inspiration
Discussion for further studies in the paradigm.
It is exceptionally interesting that in spite of the many years That said, we are forced to admit that we did not confirm the
which have passed since the original Milgram experiments, the hypothesis that the sex of the person being shocked with elec-
proportion of people submitting themselves to the authority of tricity would influence the level of obedience displayed by par-
the experimenter remains very high. The result of 90% obedi- ticipants. Our search for factors differentiating the behaviors of
ence which we have achieved, 95% CI [83.43%, 96.57%], is participants in the Milgram paradigm is consistent with the
very close to the number of people pressing the 10th button long tradition of such studies (some of which have been
in the original Milgram studies. For example, in Milgram’s described in earlier fragments of this article). Searches have
(1974) Experiment No. 2, replicated in our study, 34 of 40 peo- also been conducted for the sources of obedience (apart from
ple pressed Button No. 10 (85% of participants, the 95% CI “agentic state”) in the experimental situation itself (e.g., Col-
extends from 70.54% to 93.32%). lins & Brief, 1995; Gilbert, 1981; Lutsky, 1995). However, it
In the Milgram procedure, participant is issued with unam- should be remarked that the search for such mediating variables
biguous orders from a person who is an authority, who leaves generally concludes with the admission that the original
no room for freedom of decision, does not suggest taking time explanations proposed by Milgram are difficult to refute,
6 Social Psychological and Personality Science

and—significantly—relatively stable over time. An exception electricity. Because the results we achieved were inconclusive, and
to this rule can be found in the studies of Reicher, Haslam, and this issue is not of fundamental importance to the main subject of
Miller (2014), indicating that participants in studies on the article, we present both the scales applied and results on the
obedience can be motivated rather by appeals to science than links between those personality characteristics and obedience in the
by orders. This is, however, only a more precise labeling of Online Appendix.
the reason why participants carry out the commands of the
experimenter–scientist. In other words, we may expect that References
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historical commentary. Journal of Social Issues, 51, 55–65.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of
Author Biographies
Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378. doi:10.1037/
h0040525 Dariusz Doliński (PhD, Warsaw University, Poland) is a Full Profes-
Milgram, S. (1965). Some conditions of obedience and disobedience sor of Psychology in the SWPS University, Faculty of Psychology in
to authority. Human Relations, 18, 57–76. doi:10.1177/ Wroclaw. He teaches social psychology and psychology of marketing.
001872676501800105 He is the President of Polish Association of Social Psychology and
Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. Editor-in-Chief of Polish Psychological Bulletin. He has published
New York, NY: Harper and Row 12 books (including Techniques of social influence. The psychology
Muller-Funk, W. (2012). The architecture of modern culture: Towards of gaining compliance) and more than 180 articles.
a narrative cultural theory. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter.
Tomasz Grzyb (PhD) is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in the
Naimark, N., & Gibianskii, L. (Eds.) (1997). The establishment of
SWPS University, Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw. He teaches sta-
communist regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949. Boulder and
tistics and methodology of research. He is a member of Ethics Com-
Oxford, CA: Westview Press.
mittee of Polish Association of Social Psychology.
Nisbett, R. E., & Cohen, D. (1996). Culture of honor: The psychology
of violence in the south. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Michał Folwarczny is an MA student at the SWPS University,
Petersen, R. D. (2001). Resistance and rebellion. Lessons from Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw.
Eastern Europe. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
Piliavin, J.A., & Unger, R. K. (1985). The helpful but helpless female: Patrycja Grzybała is an MA student at the SWPS University, Faculty
Myth or reality? In V.E. O’Leary, R.K. Unger, & B.S. Wallston of Psychology in Wroclaw.
(Eds.) Women, gender, and social psychology (pp. 149–189). Karolina Krzyszycha is an MA student at the SWPS University,
Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw.
Reicher, S. D., Haslam, S. A., & Miller, A. G. (2014). What makes a
person a perpetrator? The intellectual, moral, and methodological Karolina Martynowska is an MA student at the SWPS University,
arguments for revisiting Milgram’s research on the influence of Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw.
authority. Journal of Social Issues, 70, 393–408.
Jakub Trojanowski is an MA student at the SWPS University,
Rothschild, J., & Wingfield, N. M. (2007). Return to diversity. A polit-
Faculty of Psychology in Wroclaw.
ical history of East Central Europe since World War II (4th ed.).
New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Handling Editor: Simine Vazire

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