Obedience

• Obedience occurs in situations in which people change their behaviour in response to direct commands from others.
• A person with higher status and social power is more likely to be obeyed. Doesn't mean the command is agreed with, only that it is obeyed.
• In some situations, we may ignore the norms that usually govern our lives, and obey direct orders that are inconsistent with those norms. Under direction from others, we may even carry out acts that would normally be unthinkable to us and that we may even feel are morally wrong.
• Obedience requires the issuing of a direct command; therefore, it is more direct and less subtle than social power. However, whether the individual obeys a command might depend on the social power of the person issuing the command.
• Stanley Milgram wanted to see at what point people would disobey a direct command issued by an authority figure, in this case, an experimenter.
• In the Milgram experiment, social psychologist Stanley Milgram and researchers at Yale University studied human obedience to authority. They wanted to understand if a person could be coerced to harm another human being (with electric shocks) under orders from an authority figure. In reality, no one was harmed, but the volunteers did not know this until after the study.
• Milgram concluded that the participants were influenced by the gradual nature of the situation. Participants took on a task and gradually found that it was more and more inconsistent with their beliefs about what they should and should not do. However, there was no clear cut-off point at which to switch from obeying what seemed to be an unreasonable command. The participants became locked into the situation. By obeying the first small command, they felt they had to keep going and obey larger and larger commands.
• Milgram's research suggests that a number of environmental factors have an effect on obedience, including social proximity and the legitimacy of authority figures.
• Social Proximity

  • also known as social distance between two parties
  • example: social proximity was distance between teacher and learner in Milgram's study, influenced level of obedience
  • level of obedience increased when learner was remote from teacher
  • when the learner was able to be seen by teacher, rate of teachers administering high shock decreased
• Legitimacy of Authority

  • when people assign authority to an individual and are obedient to their instructions
  • example: Milgram's study was conducted at a well-known university etc
  • the higher status attributed to a person who issues an instruction or command can lead participants to the conclusion that they are not responsible for their actions
  • 'only following orders'
  • 'important scientists must know'
• Milgram raises questions about our willingness to commit anti-social or inhumane acts commanded by a 'legitimate authority'.
• Factors that affect obedience

  • social proximity
  • legitimacy of authority