Doesn’t Support

• Circular argument: internal mental process; can’t be measured, only inferred from behaviour; can’t be defined independently, (obey = agentic state agentic state = obey); limited explanatory value and scientific credibility also the evolutionary basis has to be inferred, and archaeological evidence is highly speculative
• Lifton (1986): Milgram claimed people rapidly shift between autonomous and agentic states but this idea fails to explain the gradual and irreversible transition in German doctors at Auschwitz from caring medical professionals to human experimenters
• Staub (1988): Suggests that rather than an agentic shift being responsible for the transition found in many Holocaust perpetrators, it was the experience of carrying out acts of evil over a long time that changed the way in which individuals think and behave
• French and Raven (1959): Social Power theory, obedience is less about shifting to an agentic state and more about the authorities individual characteristics; people in different social situations have many different kinds of power (charisma, expert, coercive, legitimate, etc), better explains the motivational aspects of obedience