AO3

• Real world application

  • My Lai in Vietnam war
  • 504 unarmed civilians killed by American soldiers
  • Women were gang raped and people were shot down as they emerged from their homes with their hands in the air
  • Soldiers blew up buildings, burnt the village down and killed all the animals
  • only one soldier was put on trial and found guilty - he said he was just following orders (just like nazi soldiers)
• Disobeying

  • People may disobey even when they accept the legitimacy of the hierarchical authority structure
  • Rank and Jacobson (16/18 disobeyed)
  • Suggests innate tendencies toward obedience/disobedience may be more important than legitimacy of authority
• countries differ

  • Studies show countries change in the degree to which people traditionally obedient to authority
  • Kilham - replicated through milgrams procedure in Australia and found 18% of ppts went 0v and Mantell found 85% of German ppts went to 450v