Agency Theory

• What does agency theory say about obedience?

  We are innately predisposed to be obedient to those above us and during our upbringing we are surrounded by authority and socialised to be obedient as hierarchical societies have a greater evolutionary advantage.

  Obedience is necessary in society in order to function properly, however it's also argued that society shouldn't encourage blind obedience
• How do we behave on our own or with peers?

  Autonomously
• How do we behave when with someone above us with legitimate authority?

  Agentically and we act obediently
• What is moral strain?

  Being distressed having been ordered to do something they felt was morally wrong but still feeling as if they have to obey
• How do we avoid moral stain?

  We move into either an autonomous or agentic state
• What do people do when moving into an agentic state?

  They avoid taking personal responsibility and place the blame on the authority figure ordering them
• What do people do when moving into an autonomous state?

  They act in accordance with their free will so can disobey, taking responsibility for their own behaviour
• What can agency theory explain?

  • Events like the Holocaust and My Lai massacre when people killed because they were ordered to (real life situations in which people obey orders)
  • findings of studies such as Milgram's
  • why obedience is necessary from an evolutionary perspective
• Hofling et al (1966)

  • 22 nurses on night duty where phoned and given instructions to administer a drug
  • the dosage ordered was double the safe dose
  • obeying the doctors orders would break 3 hospital rules
  • 21/22 nurses were ok to administer 2x the daily dose of a drug because they were told to
• Rank and Jacobson (1977)

  • tried to replicate Hofling's study using a real drug that the nurses had heard of
  • 16/18 nurses would not administer 2x the daily dose of a drug because they were told to
  • believed that the nurse's knowledge of the drug (and the consequences of the overdose) meant they could justify their defiance to the doctor more easily
• What does agency theory not explain?

  • Individual difference and change in obedience with a change in situation
  • doesn't explain why people act against their moral compass whilst not acting as an agent or authority
  • the existence of an identifiable agentic state is hard to prove as its hypothetical
• What part of agency theory has no evidence?

  That there is an evolutionary basis for obedience
• Agency theory was proposed by Milgram in 1974