Argoskin et al., (2014) found a positive correlation between self-esteem and grey matter.
People with low self-esteem tend to have reduced amounts of grey matter in the hippocampus (emotion and control of stress). Therefore their might be a biological element to conformity as people with low self-esteem tend to be more conforming.
An association between damage in the prefrontal cortex and faulty moral reasoning.
Anderson et al., (1999) found two individuals who had suffered brain damage to the prefrontal cortex as babies were unable to understand the difference between right and wrong behaviour and showed personality traits similar to psychopaths.
Authoritarian personality
More likely to obey those in authority and discriminate against those that they saw as inferior
Authoritarian personality
See the world in black and white (if someone breaks the rules they should be punished)
Offer blind obedience to those they see as being of a higher authority to themselves
Are contemptuous and prejudice against those they see as being inferior to themselves
Are very confident
Scoring high on the F-scale
Often been subjected to strict and rigid upbringing, particularly from their fathers
Seeing their fathers as a figure of authority
Unable to express their negative feelings directly towards him, instead they displace them onto someone weaker
scale
Questionnaire developed by Adorno to test for authoritarian personality
Participants in Milgram's electric shock experiment
Half defied the order to go up to 450 volts, half obeyed
Participants who obeyed
Significantly more scored highly on the F-scale compared to those who had been defiant
Adorno (1950) wanted to explain how the Nazis were able to gain such a following in Germany during the Second World War
Adorno suggested the authoritarian personality was the reason for the Nazis'following
