Participants asked who was responsible if the Learner was harmed - once they were told that the Experimenter would be responsible, they often carried out the experiment with no further objections
A limited explanation of the agentic shift
The agentic shift doesn't explain many findings about obedience
For example, Rank and Jacobson's study
16 out of 18 hospital nursed disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient
The doctor was an obvious authority figure, but almost all the nurses stayed autonomous
The legitimacy of authority explains cultural differences
The legitimacy explanation is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience
Kilham and Mann - only 16% of Australian women went up to 450V in a Milgram-style study
However, Mantell found a different figure with German participants - 85%
Therefore in some countries, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
Legitimacy of authority cannot explain all (dis)obedience
The nurses in Rank and Jacobson's study
A significant minority of Milgram's participants disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter's scientific authority
Some people may just be more or less obedient than others
Real-world crimes of obedience
The My Lai massacre
In 1968, as many as 504 unarmed civilians were killed by American soldiers
One soldier faced charges and was found guilty - Lt William Calley
His defence was the same as the Nazi officers; he was only doing his duty by following orders
Kelman and Hamilton - the My Lai massacre can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy of the US Army
Commanding officers operate within a clearer legitimate hierarchy than hospital doctors
