Obedience

• What is obedience?

  Complying with the demands of an authority figure
• What are the explanations for obedience?

  • Agentic state
  • Authoritarian personality
  • Dehumanisation
  • Proximity
  • Location
  • Uniform
• What is the agentic state?

  People feel they have no responsibility for their actions as they come from someone from a higher authority and they will ultimately take responsibility. We become agents the authority figure
• What is the authoritarian personality?

  Someone who shows extreme respect for authority and status and usually has right-wing views
• What did Adorno do to find out about the authoritarian personality and obedience?

  Developed the fascist scale (F-scale) to test whether someone has an authoritarian personality. Those who scored high on the F-scale are more obedient
• How does dehumanisation affect conformity?

  If people are made to feel less of a person they will obey more
• How does proximity affect conformity?

  Milgram - The closer the distance between the teacher and learner, the less likely they are to obey. Obedience drops from 65% to 40%
• How does location affect obedience?

  Obedience is higher in a more valued setting.

  Milgram - If the experiment is set in a run down building then obedience is lower compared to being in an office
• How do uniforms affect conformity?

  They add legitimacy, so increase obedience.

  Bickman - Asked random people to pick up litter from the street. 19% obeyed a civilian, 38% obeyed a security guard
• What causes people to resist obedience?

  Social support

  Mullen et al (1999) - when one person jaywalks, others join