Agentic State and Legitimacy of Authority

• Agentic state

  When a person acts on behalf of an authority figure and feels no responsibility for their actions, usually committing acts they would normally oppose
• Autonomous state

  When a person feels responsibility for their actions and acts according to their principles
• Agentic shift

  1. Moving from the autonomous state to the agentic state

  2. Happens when in presence of a legitimate authority figure
• Legitimacy of Authority

  • When a person recognises their own and others position in a social hierarchy
  • Usually obeying those who are more in power and those who they perceive as having more authority
• How does LOA occur?

  Through uniform (e.g. police officers), learned from early in childhood and reinforced by socialisation
• Research support by Blass and Schmidt(AO3) +


  Showed students a film of Milgram's study and were asked who they felt was responsible for harming the learner. They blamed the experimenter rather than the participant.
• Students recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience (experimenter was a scientist)
• Supporting the idea of an agentic state as an explanation of obedience
• It does not explain why some participants in Milgram's study did not obey despite recognising the authority of the experimenter (AO3) -
• In theory, all participants should have been in an agentic state and should have obeyed, which was not the case
• Therefore an agentic state can not explain all obedience and only accounts for some situations of obedience
• Cultural Differences (AO3) -

  In countries where authority figures are less valued (Australia), obedience rates are lower
• In countries where authority figures are more valued (Germany)


  Obedience rates are higher
• LOA 


  Plays a part in obedience, increasing the validity as an explanation