Obedience: Milgram's Agency Theory Flashcards
Define Obedience
A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.
What did Milgram say about obedience?
Said that obedience to authority is necessary for the smooth running of society.
What did Milgram also say about when we are born?
We are born with the potential for obedience, which then interacts with the influence of society to create the obedient man.
What 2 mindsets did Milgram suggest we have?
Autonomous and agentic states
Define Autonomous State
- Behave and make own decisions independently.
- Take responsibility for our own actions.
Legitimate Authority
We judge whether people are higher or lower than us in the social hierarchy and the extent whether they have legitimate authority when meeting them.
Authority is legit when there is a consensus that a person has the right to give us orders and to enforce obedience.
Making the Agentic Shift
When confronted with legit authority we change from our normal autonomous state to the agentic state.
This change of state is called the agentic shift.
Define Agentic State
A mindset which allows us to carry out orders from an authority figure, even if they conflict with our personal sense of right and wrong.
blame them for negative consequences.
What did Milgram believe about the agentic state?
This agentic state is what leads people to commit acts of destructive obedience.
Moral Strain
A state of mental discomfort or anxiety experienced in the agentic state when a person’s actions conflict with their personal morality.
What does Milgram say about Moral Strain?
This strain is not enough to provoke defiance.
Milgram explains that powerful binding factors ensure that people remain in the agentic state.
Support of Theory
In his 1963 study he found that 100% of participants would administer a shock of 300v to a confederate.
65% would go to 450v, beyond the label of ‘extreme danger’.
Supports Milgram’s suggestion that in the face of legitimate authority, people are likely to carry out orders despite of moral strain.
Competing Milgram
Milgram 1963 internal validity questioned. PP may have seen through the deception.
Evidence revealed showed that PP questioned if shocks were real.
Also found that across all his study’s 60% disobeyed the experimenter, leaving agency theory in question.
Weakness
Agentic shift does not appear to be inevitable.
study with nurses shows that 16 of 18 nurses failed to obey orders from a doctor who asked them to administer an overdose of Valium.
Shows that despite the doctors being a source of authority, vast majority remained autonomous. Demonstrates the nurses did consider themselves responsible for their actions.
Application
When binding factors outweigh moral strain, obedience follows.
This has been applied to a variety of military strategies devised to ensure soldiers follow orders without question by reducing moral strain.
The use of euphemisms like ‘collateral damage’ used to refer to the enemy shows how an authority figure’s communication can minimise moral strain so soldiers stay in agentic state.
