Personality variables: people who obey in such circumstances are different; there are individual differences. Extreme obedience stems from primitive emotional responses. A study by Bègue et al (2014) assessed participants with the Big Five Mini-Markers questionnaire and found that conscientiousness and agreeableness were associated with willingness to administer higher-intensity shocks to a victim.
Situational variables: normal, ordinary people obey. Some situations (e.g Hitler & the Holocaust) foster conditions for obedience. Adolf Eichmann was executed in 1962 for his part in organising the Holocaust. At his trial in 1961, Eichmann expressed surprise at being hated by Jewish people, saying that he had merely obeyed orders. In his jail diary, Eichmann wrote "The orders were, for me, the highest thing in my life and I had to obey them without question." Eichmann was declared sane by 6 psychiatrists, had a normal family life, and observers at his trial described him as very average. Therefore, people had to face the uncomfortable possibility that his behaviour was the product of the social situation in which he found himself in.
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