Obedience -Agentic State and Legitimacy of Authority

• Agentic State

  • Autonomous state: Individuals make choices, aware of consequences, and take responsibility.

  • Agentic state: Individuals act as agents, resulting in lack of responsibility.

  • Agentic shift: Change from autonomous to agentic state.

  • Conditions: Perceived authority legitimacy, belief in accountability.
• Agentic State and Binding Factors

  • Milgram's experiment showed participants unable to quit due to societal etiquette.

  • Binding factors tie individuals into certain situations.

  • Breaking commitment to authority figures is necessary to stop obeying.

  • Fear of appearing rude due to commitment fears binds individuals into obedience.
• Legitimacy of Authority

  • Hierarchical order in societies.

  • Perception of authority justified by individual's power.

  • Obeying authority learned from childhood, parents, teachers, adults.

  • Obeying authority due to fear or trust.

  • Visible authority symbols increase legitimacy.

  • Cruel behavior often exhibited when authority orders destructive actions.
• Limitation- people do not always rapidly and reversely go from autonomous to agent if state

  • Milgram's theory suggests rapid transition from autonomous to agentic states.

  • Lifton's study on Auschwitz doctors suggests that they gradually and irreversibly go from caring doctors to doctors who carry out vile experiments.

  • suggests that it is just not the rapid shifting responsibility that results in people obeying authority.
• Agentic state or just plain cruel?

  Limitation of Explaining Obedience:

  • Agentic state may not fully explain obedience.

  • Milgram's study suggests participants' obedience reflects sadistic, cruel personalities.

  • Zimbardo's prison experiment supports this, as guards showed cruelty without an obvious authority figure.

  • The agentic state cannot explain cruel behavior without an obvious authority figure.
• The legitimate authority explanation and real-life obedience

  Legitimacy of Authority (LoA) Explanation

  • strength - Explains how obedience can lead to war crimes.

  • Example: Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam War.

  • Army's authority recognized by government and law.

  • Soldiers assume orders from hierarchy are legal.

  • Strength: Practical applications.

  • Helps prevent future crimes by educating people to challenge authority.
• Cultural Differences

  •strength - Legitimacy of authority explanation reveals cultural differences in obedience.

  • Milgram's study in Australia showed 16% of participants obeyed maximum voltage.

  • Mantell's study in Germany showed 85% obeyed maximum voltage.

  • Cultural perception of authority figures may influence obedience.

  • shows that who we believe to be a ‘legitimate’ authority depends on our culture. 
  • This may be due to the different ways in which children are raised to perceive authority figures in different cultures