Legitimacy of Authority/Agentic State

• :) RTS Milgram

  > most of the participants often asked 'who is responsible if the learner is harmed?'

  > when the experimenter responded 'I am responsible', the participant often continued to give shocks

  > supports the agentic state as they no longer believed they were responsible for their actions
• :) RTS Hofling

  > conducted a study using nurses, who were ordered by an unknown doctor to give a dangerous dose of a drug to patients, via a telephone

  > 21 out of 22 nurses agreed, even though they knew not to take orders over the phone

  > supports legitimacy of authority - the doctor had more authority than the nurses

  > supports agentic state - nurses felt that the doctors were responsible
• :( RTC Mandel (agentic state)

  > German Nazi soldiers were given the orders to shoot civilians in a small town in Poland and obeyed

  > however, they were told beforehand that they could be given other duties instead

  > contradicts the agentic state as soldiers chose to shoot the civilians - they could not blame an authority figure
• :( alternative explanation

  > dispositional factors e.g. authoritarian personality

  > argues that obedience is due to internal characteristics, such as extreme respect for authority due to their upbringing

  > weakens the explanations of obedience, as they are not the sole explanations