Psychological explanation

• Strength of the agentic state

  • Dambrun and Vatiné (2010) found that the participants who gave the most electric shocks when ordered to do so in a torture simulation tended to hold the experimenter and the victim responsible for what happened, rather than themselves.
  • This refusal to accept personal responsibility in participants who were most obedient shows that the agentic state does explain why people will obey even in situations where they know their actions are wrong.
  • This increases the validity of the agentic state explanation of obedience
• Strength of legitimacy of authority

  • Tarnow (2000) studied data from a US National Transport Safety Board review of air traffic accidents. In 19 out of the 37 accidents investigated, a major contributory factor was the authority of the captain - leading to co-pilots feeling unable to challenge wrong decisions.
  • This shows that the legitimate authority of the captain increased the obedience of the co-pilots, eventually leading to accidents
  • This increases the validity of legitimacy of authority as an explanation of obedience.
• Weakness of legitimacy of authority

  • For example, if the legitimacy of authority emphasises we obey those above us in the social hierarchy then in theory, all participants should have been in an agentic state but we only saw a 65% obedience rate.
  • This suggests that LOU cannot explain all obedience and maybe other factors like personality of locus of control are more important in obedience.
  • This questions the accuracy of the LOU explanation of obedience thereby, reducing it’s validity.