People direct their own actions, and they take responsibility for results of those actions
Agentic state
People allow others to direct their actions and then pass off responsibility for consequences to person giving orders. They act as agents for another person's will.
Agency theory
2 things must be in place for a person to enter agentic state:
Person giving orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people's behavior. They are seen as legitimate.
Person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority will accept responsibility for what happens.
Milgram: 'When in the agentic state, the participant "defines himself in a social situation in a manner that renders him open to regulation by a person of higher status. In this condition = individual no longer views himself as responsible for his own actions but defines himself as an instrument for carrying out the wishes of others"'
When participants were reminded that they had responsibility for their own actions
Almost none of them were prepared to obey
When the experimenter said that he would take responsibility
Many participants who were refusing to go on did so
This shows the capacity for man to abandon his humanity, indeed, the inevitability that he does so, as he merges his unique personality into larger institutional structures.
