Act of Human Obedience
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An Act of Human Obedience is social influence in which an individual yields to explicit orders and instructions from an authority figure.
- AKA: Obedience.
- Example(s):
- a subject in a Milgram experiment (obeying the lab coated authority figure).
- …
- Counter-Example(s):
- See: Stanford Prison Experiment, Social Influence, Authority Figure, Compliance, Conformity, Amorality, Milgram Experiment, Moral Courage.
References
2015
- (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obedience_(human_behavior) Retrieved:2015-10-18.
- Obedience, in human behavior, is a form of “social influence in which a person yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority figure". Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance, which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity, which is behavior intended to match that of the majority. Obedience can be seen as immoral, amoral and moral. For example, in a situation when one orders a person to kill another innocent person and he or she does so willingly, it is generally considered to be immoral. However, when one orders a person to kill an enemy who will end many innocent lives and he or she does so willingly, it can be deemed moral. Humans have been shown to be obedient in the presence of perceived legitimate authority figures, as shown by the Milgram experiment in the 1960s, which was carried out by Stanley Milgram to find out how the Nazis managed to get ordinary people to take part in the mass murders of the Holocaust. The experiment showed that obedience to authority was the norm, not the exception. Regarding obedience, Milgram said that "Obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to; Some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living, and it is only the man dwelling in isolation who is not forced to respond, through defiance or submission, to the commands of others." A similar conclusion was reached in the Stanford prison experiment.