The perceived right of an authority figure to have power and control over others.
Why is someone more likely to obey when someone else has legitimate authority?
Most people accept that society has authority figures that are allowed to exercisesocial power over others in order for society to function smoothly.
A consequence is that some people are granted the power to punish others.
We are normally willing to give over this power to people we trust to exercise their authority appropriately e.g. police, courts.
This starts when we are children - parents, teachers, adults generally
What are the strengths of Legitimacy of Authority?
Supportive findings from cross-cultural research increases validity of explanations.
If legitimacy of authority is a useful explanation of real-life war crimes, then it could be used to help us to understand how to prevent such crimes in the futre.
What is the Agentic State?
When someone sees themselves as acting on behalf of someone else (the agent).
What is the Autonomous State?
A state in which we are in control of our decisions.
What is the Agentic Shift?
The switch between the autonomous and agentic state.
What did Binding factors do in Milgram's research?
People remained in an agentic state because they don't want to deal with overcoming the situation. These powerful bonds can entrap a person into doing something they might otherwise prefer not to do.
