Explanations for obedience – social psychological and
dispositional
The results obtained by Milgram and others are disturbing.
Milgram’s studies indicate that: ordinary people can be destructively obedient.
Why?
Social psychological explanations
Milgram offered social-psychological explanations for the levels of obedience he
found in his studies.
What are social-psychological explanations?
Such explanations concern the influences of others on an individuals behaviour as
opposed to external factors in the situation (situational variations).
The emphasis is shifted away from the personal characteristics.
What are these social explanations in relation to obedience?
Agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
Both of these explanations emphasise that the causes of obedience lie in social
hierarchies.
, Agentic state
What is an agentic state?
An agentic state is a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our
behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure i.e. as
their agent.
How does the agentic state explain why people obey?
This led Milgram to propose that obedience to destructive authority occurs because
in many situations the persons in authority have relieved those who obey of the
responsibility for their own actions – diffusion of responsibility.
They believe they are acting for someone else.
This frees them from the demands of their conscience and the person “unthinkingly”
carries our orders.
What did Milgram refer to this as?
Milgram referred to this process of shifting responsibility for ones actions onto
someone else as “agentic shift”.
Evaluation for the Agentic state
Strengths
Research support
In Milgram’s experiments this was quite explicit.
How does this apply to Milgram’s experiments?
Subjects were told that the experiments (the authority figure), not they, would be
responsible for the victim’s well being.
In interview’s carried out at the end of Milgram’s study, when participants were
asked why they had continued to administer electric shocks a typical reply was “I
wouldn’t have done it to myself. I was just doing what I was told.”
Given this fact, it is not surprising that many tended to obey.
Real-life crimes of obedience
A strengths of this explanation is that it can help explain how obedience can lead to
real-life war crimes.
Milgram saw this as being crucial to understanding the:
o Nazi atrocities of people like Eichmann. Eichmann was in charge of the
transportation of Jews and others to extermination camps.
How does agentic state explain the behaviour of Adolf Eichmann?
Adolf Eichmann argued that he had only been obeying orders.
He was not the “monster” that the newspapers described but simply an ordinary
person caught up in an extraordinary situation.
Eichmann was described as having no violent anti-Jewish feelings.
He was an autonomous individual who became agentic when he joined the SS and
subscribed to the military code of obedience to those in authority.
dispositional
The results obtained by Milgram and others are disturbing.
Milgram’s studies indicate that: ordinary people can be destructively obedient.
Why?
Social psychological explanations
Milgram offered social-psychological explanations for the levels of obedience he
found in his studies.
What are social-psychological explanations?
Such explanations concern the influences of others on an individuals behaviour as
opposed to external factors in the situation (situational variations).
The emphasis is shifted away from the personal characteristics.
What are these social explanations in relation to obedience?
Agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
Both of these explanations emphasise that the causes of obedience lie in social
hierarchies.
, Agentic state
What is an agentic state?
An agentic state is a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our
behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure i.e. as
their agent.
How does the agentic state explain why people obey?
This led Milgram to propose that obedience to destructive authority occurs because
in many situations the persons in authority have relieved those who obey of the
responsibility for their own actions – diffusion of responsibility.
They believe they are acting for someone else.
This frees them from the demands of their conscience and the person “unthinkingly”
carries our orders.
What did Milgram refer to this as?
Milgram referred to this process of shifting responsibility for ones actions onto
someone else as “agentic shift”.
Evaluation for the Agentic state
Strengths
Research support
In Milgram’s experiments this was quite explicit.
How does this apply to Milgram’s experiments?
Subjects were told that the experiments (the authority figure), not they, would be
responsible for the victim’s well being.
In interview’s carried out at the end of Milgram’s study, when participants were
asked why they had continued to administer electric shocks a typical reply was “I
wouldn’t have done it to myself. I was just doing what I was told.”
Given this fact, it is not surprising that many tended to obey.
Real-life crimes of obedience
A strengths of this explanation is that it can help explain how obedience can lead to
real-life war crimes.
Milgram saw this as being crucial to understanding the:
o Nazi atrocities of people like Eichmann. Eichmann was in charge of the
transportation of Jews and others to extermination camps.
How does agentic state explain the behaviour of Adolf Eichmann?
Adolf Eichmann argued that he had only been obeying orders.
He was not the “monster” that the newspapers described but simply an ordinary
person caught up in an extraordinary situation.
Eichmann was described as having no violent anti-Jewish feelings.
He was an autonomous individual who became agentic when he joined the SS and
subscribed to the military code of obedience to those in authority.
