Legitimacy of Authority AO3

• +Its a useful account of cultural differences in obedience. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority. Kilham & Mann found that only 16% of female australian participants went all the way up to 450 volts in a Milgram style study. Mantell found very different results in Germany - 85%. This shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals. This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures.
• -Legitimacy can’t explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where its clear and accepted. Most of the nurses were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure. A significant minority of Milgram's participants disobeyed despite recognising the experimenter's scientific authority. This suggests that some people just may be more or less obedient than others. Its possible that innate tendencies to obey/disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of on authority figure.