Situational Explanations

• What is the Agentic state

  • a mental state
  • We carry out actions for an authority figure, moving the blame and responsibility to them
  • Feel we are controlled by someone else
  • Acting as an agent for another’s wishes
• What is the opposite of the agentic state?

  Autonomous state
• What is the agentic shift (autonomous state)

  • we are independent - person behaves according to their OWN principles
  • Milgram states destructive authority occurs because someone's autonomy is abandoned
  • Happens when we perceive someone else as an authority figure - they have a higher position in the social hierarchy
• Agentic shift direction 


  Autonomous state —> agentic state
• Agentic state - binding factors

  • when the ppt uses factors of their environment to justify/explain their actions
  • They play a role in the individual entering the agentic state
• What is legitimate authority?

  We are more likely to obey people that we think have authority over us —> those that are ‘above’ us in the hierarchy.
• What is legitimate authority?

  • when authority is perceived as justified, rightful, real and genuine
  • Higher social status
  • Learn acceptance of legitimate authority in childhood from parents, teachers, police etc.
  • Reinforced at school
• Why do we obey legitimate authority?

  • Higher social status
  • Orders are more likely to have importance
  • Greater fear of punishment
  • More intimidated
  • More pressure
  • More likely to trust them
• Strength - legitimate authority

  • Hofling - 21/22 nurses obeyed- give lethal dosage of an unknown drug by fake doctor over the phone.
  • Legitimate authority better explains the behaviour of the ppts than the situational factor of proximity
  • Proximity would predict the ppts wouldn't obey because it was over the phone - legitimate authority explains the results better as it was a perceived authority figure
• Weakness - legitimate authority

  • Rank and Jacobson - similar to Hofling but the drug was known - 2/18 obeyed
  • Their knowledge of the consequences of this act (what the drug would do) was more powerful than perceived authority / legitimacy
  • Suggests tendencies towards obedience/disobedience may be more important than legitimacy of authority
• Strength - legitimate authority

  • Bickman
  • Found that uniform supported the notion of conveying if an authority figure is perceived as genuine
  • Public were 2x more likely to obey the ‘security guard’ than the others - conveyed legitimate authority
• What were the binding factors in Milgrams original study?

  Probes - could shift blame to Mr Williams
• Strength - Agentic state

  • Blass and Schmitt
  • Showed a film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner
  • Students blamed the experimenter
  • Suggests they recognised how the ppt is not judged for their actions + how people will pass responsibility to another person
• Strength - Agentic State

  • Milgrams original study - 65% went to 450v
  • Prompts by the experimenter are binding factors- increase likelihood of ppts entering an agentic state
  • Some had extreme reactions - Supports that they may feel guilty but still carried on - passed the responsibility to Mr Williams
• Weakness - Agentic state

  • doesn't account for other factors
  • Can’t explain why some individuals disobeyed in Milgrams original study
  • Doesn’t consider personality factors
  • E.g. Some individuals may have wanted to portray themselves in a good light in front of the researcher.
  • May have stopped at 300v because they were conscious of how bad they might look if they continued (social desirability bias)
• Real life examples (strength )

  • The My Lai Massacre
  • Lieutenant in a position of power – uniform also conveys legitimate authority.
  • Soldiers felt that they were acting as agents for their lieutenant
  • Lieutenant is ultimately responsible and takes the blame off the soldiers
  • Some soldiers went past what could be considered ‘obeying orders’ and did horrific things that may have been of their own decision
  • Hard to use situational explanations past a certain severity of actions
  • Suggests lack of free will to make own decisions which can be dangerous
• Measurement and making decisions - weakness

  • it is hard to tell how much someone is in the agentic state
  • Can’t be operationalized
  • May obey due to a combination of situational factors and explanations -hard to distinguish