Explanation of Obedience

Question 1

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 1

Obedient individual accept the power and status of authority and see them as being in charge.
Accept people’s credentials and believe they know what they are doing. It is ingrained in us to obey these people even when we believe the order may be unethical or unjust.

Question 2

Agentic State

Answer 2

People move from being in a state they take personal responsibility for their actions (autonomous state) to a state where they believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure (Agentic state). This is known as agentic shift.
When in an agent state they lose sense of personal responsibility and no longer feel guilty for their actions.

Question 3

A strength Account for cultural differences in obedience.

Answer 3

in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate.
This effects how different cultures are structured and children are raised to perceive authority figure. This supported by cross cultural replication of Milgram’s studies as in Australia 16% went to 450 volts and in Germany 85% went to 450 volts.