Authority and Agentic State

• The Agentic State is a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe to be acting for an authority figure. This frees us from demands of our consciences and allows us to obey a destructive authority figure.
• The Autonomous State is when we are acting independently and feel responsible for our own actions.
• The Agentic Shift is when someone shifts from the autonomous to the agentic state. Milgram’s said this happens when we view someone as an authority figure and they hold greater power due to their position on the social hierarchy.
• Binding factors are the aspects that allow the person to ignore or minimise the effect of their own behaviour and reduce moral strain. Eg, shifting blame, denying or justifying.
• Moral Strain is the feeling of guilt or discomfort caused by doing something wrong. It can lead to resistance against obedience.
• Hofling et al conducted a field experiment with 22 night nurses. A “doctor” tells them to give a dose of astroten higher than they knew was the max dosage over the phone and that he would sign an authorisation form later. 21/22 were about to until questioned.
• Rank and Jacobson repeated Hofling’s study, but instead the doctor instructed a “non lethal overdose”, 2/18 obeyed. This shows knowledge is power.
• The Authoritarian personality was a type of personality Adorno argued was susceptible to obey people in authority. He concluded it formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting. The f-scale (potential for fascism scale) is used to measure this.