Obedience (human behavior)

Lore & Background

Obedience has been studied experimentally in several ways. In Milgram's experiment, subjects were told they were taking part in a study of the effects of punishment on learning, but the real focus was on willingness to obey malevolent authority. Subjects served as teachers who administered electric shocks of increasing severity to a learner for wrong answers, with an experimenter encouraging them to continue despite the learner's agonized screams and pleas. About two-thirds of participants were willing to administer the highest level of shock. Milgram suggested participants may have entered an agentic state, allowing the authority figure to take responsibility for their actions. The procedure caused tension and emotional strain; three subjects had full-blown uncontrollable seizures.

In the Stanford prison experiment, college-age students were randomly assigned to be prison guards or prisoners in a pseudo-prison environment. The guards obeyed orders and turned aggressive, while prisoners were hostile to and resented their guards. The cruelty of the guards and stress of the prisoners forced Zimbardo to terminate the experiment prematurely after six days. Modern studies have replicated Milgram's method with alterations, such as Jerry Burger's study ending at 150 volts and using a two-step screening process. Utrecht University studies instructed participants to make a confederate feel uncomfortable, measuring absolute and relative obedience. Neuroscience research has shown that obeying orders reduces brain activations in regions associated with empathy and guilt, and reduces the sense of agency.

Reader's Guide

The study of obedience is significant because it reveals how ordinary people can commit harmful acts under authority, as shown by the Milgram and Stanford prison experiments. These studies demonstrated that obedience to authority is the norm, not the exception, and that situational forces can override personal morality. Milgram's work was originally motivated to understand how Nazis got ordinary people to participate in Holocaust mass murders. The experiments generated controversy but have been replicated with ethical modifications, confirming that about two-thirds of participants obey malevolent orders. Modern neuroscience has extended this work, showing that obeying orders reduces brain activity in empathy-related regions and diminishes the sense of personal agency. The legacy of these studies is a deeper understanding of the power of authority in social life, influencing fields from psychology to ethics and organizational behavior.

Did You Know?

• In Milgram's experiment, about two-thirds of participants were willing to administer the highest level of shock to the learner.
• Three subjects in Milgram's experiment had full-blown uncontrollable seizures.
• The Stanford prison experiment was terminated prematurely after six days due to the cruelty of the guards and stress of the prisoners.
• Neuroscience studies show that obeying orders reduces brain activations in the anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula, regions associated with empathy.