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milgram - Coggle Diagram

- - - - When an authority figure issues an order that goes against our conscience, we experience moral strain. This is because we have two contradictory urges: to obey the authority figure (and society's expectations) and to obey our consciences (and keep our own self-image as "a good person").
        Moral strain might appear as physical distress, like shaking or weeping. Milgram points out that his own participants used "defence mechanisms"
      - Denial: some of the participants in Milgram's study minimised the pain they were causing to the Learner, convincing themselves that the shocks weren't dangerous (even though "DANGER" was written on the shock generator); Milgram argues that many people in Nazi Germany did this, refusing to believe what was going on in the death camps
      - Avoidance: many participants tried not to look at the Experimenter or even look up from the shock generator
      - Degree of Involvement: some participants only flicked the switches on the shock generator lightly, as if this would somehow lessen the pain
      - Helping the Learner: other participants tried to help the Learner by stressing the correct answer on the memory test; in Variation #7, some participants deliberately gave a weaker shock rather than the stronger shock because they thought no one was watching
      - Going into the Agentic State removes moral strain, because we regard the authority figure as now being responsible for our actions. This is the appeal of the Agentic State.
  - - - Milgram carried out a lot of research in support of Agency Theory. His “variations” support the idea that situational factors make participants more or less obedience, especially when they relate to the perceived authority of the experimenter. On the other hand, dispositional factors (like empathy or gender) don’t seem to make much difference at all.
        
        Later studies (like Burger, 2009) have tended to back up Milgram’s conclusions. All around the world, obedience is high, even when authority figures give orders that are distressing and immoral.
        
        Agency Theory also explains events like the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansings in the Balkans in the ‘90s and in Syria today when these crimes are ordered by authority figures.
    - - Moral strain is one of the distinctive features of Agency Theory (it is missing from Social Impact Theory). However it is a problem for the theory. In Milgram’s observational studies, moral strain was shown by the participants who obeyed (weeping, groaning, shaking, fainting), not by the ones who disobeyed. Milgram’s theory suggests that the Agentic State is an escape from moral strain, but this is not what is observed in his studies.
        
        Milgram’s research suffers from a lack of ecological validity, since in real life teachers are not asked to electrocute students, nor were wartime Germans asked to do this by the Nazis. The artificial and unusual nature of the supporting research might count against the theory.
        
        Meeus & Raaijmakers (1986) replicated Milgram with insults instead of shocks; this is much more realistic but this study still put participants in an unusual position (making them pretend to interview people for a job and deliver insults that appeared on an overhead TV screen).
    - - The alternative theory is Social Impact Theory which suggests that everyone applies Social Force to everyone else to get what they want. This is similar to Milgram’s idea of the Agentic State, because people find it hard to resist pressures to obey. Both theories regard people as passive, doing whatever social pressure makes them do. However, Social Impact Theory ignores the importance of moral strain.
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      - There are other theories that explain obedience. Theodor Adorno (1950) argues that some people have an “Authoritarian Personality” that is threatened by people who are different and enjoys following rules. This theory that suggests obedience to evil orders comes from a dysfunctional personality, not a social situation
    - - Agency Theory also suggests there is always a danger of blind obedience, even from people who have no personal prejudices. To counter this, society tries to hold authority figures to account through democratic processes and “checks and balances” in government, so that no authority figure has too much power. Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January) is celebrated each year because Agency Theory tells us that the Holocaust could happen again, anywhere
      - The idea of the Agentic Shift may help reduce prejudice and discrimination because authority figures could tell people to be tolerant and understanding of outsiders. In fact, this is often done, with celebrities and sporting heroes visiting schools to encourage tolerance and equality (as well as telling students not to do drugs or crime). This is one of the reasons why there is such an outcry when a celebrity like a sports star or musician makes a racist remark or behaves in a sexist way: as an authority figure, they may be encouraging their fans to do as they do.