Obedience: Social-Psycological Factors

Question 1

Agentic state:

Answer 1

Become agent of authority, losing personal responsibility

Switch from autonomous to agentic state is called agentic shift

Binding factors reduce moral strain and ignore damaging effects of obedience

Question 2

Person who is in agentic state

Answer 2

Feels no personal responsibility for their actions

Question 3

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 3

Accept some people’s authority, agreed by society

Hand over control to trusted authority, learned to do so in childhood

History shows leaders often use legitimate authority destructively.

Question 4

Agentic state: research support

Answer 4

Students saw participants as agents of experimenter. (Blass and Schmidt)

Blast a shit in the toilet

Question 5

Agentic state: limited explanation

Answer 5

Nurses in Hofling et al. Didn’t show anxiety (cuff links in ass)

Can’t explain disobedience in battalion 101 (Mandel)
(Mandem!)

Question 6

Legitimacy of authority evaluation

Answer 6

Cultural differences in obedience- reflect differences in legitimacy, Germany 85% obedient (Mantel) (won’t tell); 16% Australians Kilham and Mann (kill him that man)

Explains real-life obedience- US army hierarchy in My Lai massacre. (Kelman and Hamilton) (k man eat that ham)