Obedience: Social-psychological factors Flashcards
Agentic state
A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour, because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure, which frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure
Legitimacy of authority
An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us
Autonomous state
Where we are free to behave in accordance to their own principles and therefore feel a sense of responsibility to our own actions
Agentic shift
The shift from autonomy(independence) to agency
What happens when an individual enters a hierarchy of authority?
The individual no longer see themselves as acting out their own purposes, but rather comes to see themselves as an agent for executing the wishes of another
Legitimacy of authority key features
Hierarchical systems in society - agreed by society?
Granted power to punish others
Give up independence and hand control of our behaviour to people we trust
Perceiving someone to be in a position of social control.
Shared expectation to have a leader.
Their power stems from their perceived position in the social situation.
Entered the laboratory with the expectation someone will be in charge.
Binding factors
Reluctance to disrupt the experiment - obligation
Pressure of the surroundings - legitimate authority
Insistence of the authority figure
Social etiquette regulates our behaviour
In Milgram’s study, they agreed to take part in the experiment, and would therefore have to breach the commitment made.
Fear of appearing arrogant or rude if breaking away from the experiment may have stopped them
Self-image - how does our self image affect the agentic state?
Once they move in to the agentic state, worrying about their own image is no longer as relevant.
They see the action as no longer being their responsibility or reflections of their own self-image.
Links to My Lai Massacre - where Lieutenant William Calley accepted no guilt for the killing of 500 villagers, and blamed it on his commanding officer.
Positive evaluation support for Legitimate Authority
Blass and Schmitt(2001):
Students who were shown a video of Milgram’s experiment, blamed the experimenter, rather than the teacher.
Responsibility is due to legitimate authority - top of the hierarchy
Expert scientist
The agentic state and real life obedience - evidence against
Carrying out acts of evil over extended periods of time can change the way people think and feel.
Mandel(1998):German Reserve Police Battalion 101- no direct orders
Mixed evaluation(cultural differences)
Kilman and Mann:
Australia - 16% obedience
Mantell 1971: 85% obedience(Germany)
In some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience
Increases the validity of the explanation
Obedience in the cockpit - evidence to support redefining the situation and legitimate authority
Review of accidents - second pilot - didn’t want to question authority of the lead pilot - ‘cockpit culture’
Air Asiana crash(2013)-“didn’t want to question captain’s orders”
A limited explanation(agentic shift)
Does it explain why some people didn’t obey?
What about Hofling et al?
Anxiety levels?
The agentic shift explanation predicts the nurses handed over responsibility to the doctor, and they should have shown levels of anxiety similarly to Milgram’s, as they understood their role in the destructive process, but they did not.
Additional information - loss of personal control
Agentic shift isn’t only confined to obedience
Reduction in personal control - evidence of bystander apathy
Did we see this in Zimbardo’s study:
Zimbardo - When the good guards didn’t intervene with bad guards/Zimbardo not intervening to stop guard brutality.
Zimbardo was imitating a character - prison guards went along with this, so didn’t shift to the agentic state(weren’t receiving orders from an authority)
