Obedience - Social Psychological Factors

Agentic State:

Milgram's obedience study was triggered by the holocaust. He wanted to find out why people would follow orders if it meant they were causing harm to others. From the experiment Milgram proposed that obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person does not take responsibility. Instead they believe they are acting for someone else. This is called agentic state. People in agentic state experience high anxiety when they realise what they are doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey.

Autonomous State:

Autonomy means to be independent or free. A person in an autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions. The shift from autonomy to agency is called the agentic shift. Milgram suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority. This other person has greater power because of their position in a social hierarchy. In most social groups when one person is in charge others defer to this person and shift from autonomy to agency.

Blass & Schmitt [2001] showed students a film of Milgram's study and asked them to identify who they thought was responsible for the harm to the learner. The students blames the experimenter rather than the participant. The students also indicated that the responsibility was…