situational explanations for obedience

Question 1

agentic state

Answer 1

• a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure i.e. as their agent
• frees us from the demands of our consciences & allows us to obey even a destructive authority
• opposite state: Autonomous > where a person is free to act according to their own principles
• the shift from autonomous to agentic is called ‘agentic shift’
• a person remains in the agentic state due to binding factors (aspects of a situation which allows for a person to ignore/minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour & reduce ‘moral strain’ they feel)

Question 2

legitimacy of authority

Answer 2

• exp. which suggests we’re more likely to obey people who we perceive to have more authority over us
• this authority is justified (legitimate) by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy