Evaluation

    Cards (5)

    • Research support for the Agentic State
      • Milgram's own studies support
      • 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