Agentic state and legitimacy of authority

• AO3 for agentic state/legitimacy of authority?

  • ☹️ can’t shift from agentic to autonomous- lifton - German doctors = gradual. need to experience carrying out evil acts over long periods of time
  • ☹️ just within ppls nature to be cruel- milgram detected cruelty among pps, zimbardo experiment
  • 😄 support for power of leg auth- tarnow- lack of monitoring in 19/37 plane accidents investigated because of excessive dependence on captains authority
  • ☹️using leg to explain real life obedience- can serve as the basis for justifying harm of others. Shift responsibility onto other people.
• what is the agentic state?

  a person shifts responsibility for their actions onto another person (authority figure) and sees themself as an agent for that person
• what is legitimacy of authority?

  person with perceived social control within a situation
• why do people adopt and then maintain an agentic state?

  • self-image- needs to be positive, why people adopt agentic state in the first place. in an autonomous state, the person might refrain from doing wrong as it would reflect bad on them, but in agentic state person feels no responsibility and doesn't affect individual's own self-image, so they feel free of guilt
  • binding factors- keeps someone in an agentic state- social etiquette that regulates behaviour. The subject fears breaking away from agentic state will portray them as arrogant and rude, so they are bound to obedience
• state the key characteristics of someone who is a legitimate authority figure

  • power does not come from characteristics but their perceived authority in a social situation
  • represented in Milgram's study (experimenter)
  • we expect someone to be in charge in every social situation we are in
  • the authority figure defines the situation- we allow an authority figure to define the social context and are committed to obeying them
  • an authority figure requires an institution- Milgram's study- if commands from authority figure seem to be harmful, they need an institution to support power behind commands- an institution that can match the context of the authority figure's position
• what is an autonomic state?

  person sees themselves as responsible for their own actions
• what is agentic shift?

  when someone shifts responsibility from themselves onto a figure of authority