Obeying Authority Outline

Obeying Authority Outline
Prompt: To what extent will people ignore their consciences to obey the orders of authority? Thesis Statement: Everyone has their own morals, and
those morals are affected by how extreme the consequences are for disobeying authority. Topic 1: Milgram's experiment does not support disobeying
authority because no one wanted to disobey someone of higher authority. o This experiment was designed to show the importance to stand up for one's
beliefs o The teacher's desire to to disobey authority (in this case the scientist) was the initiation by the thought if he would be responsible for the
learner's injuries. After asking many times if he was responsible for the injuries the experimenter replied "I'm responsible for anything that happens to
him. Continue please." And the teacher was able to continue knowing he wasn't that he was simply just obeying orders. (Obedience to Authority:
Milgram– Page 654) o...show more content...
Topic 2: Civil Disobedience can be a good thing because it's what leads the U.S. into movements and revolutions. o Civil disobedience is an
appropriate weapon in the fight for justice. o Women's suffrage movement from 1848 to 1920 giving women the right to vote в™ЈSusan B. Anthony
and fourteen women registered and voted in Rochester, New York o Brings Civil Obedience to an unfair
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Obedience to Authority
Obedience to Authority No human social organization can function without some degree of obedience to authority, as the alternative would be anarchy
leading to total chaos. Hence we find some sort of a hierarchy in both the most underdeveloped and the most civilized societies where certain
individuals exercise authority over others. Almost everyone will agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups (and their
obedience by other groups) is desirable for the proper functioning of a society. The problem arises when the obedience to authority is taken to extremes.
Unfortunately, history has shown that this happens time and again, usually with undesirable results. It is this blind obedience to authority that...show
more content...
In this context he observes "among our most shameful memories is–how often we said black was white because other people were saying it."
("Fromm," On Disobedience...) Jo'ana Meyer is a sociologist at the Rutger's University who has carried out valuable research on children's susceptibility
to leading and suggestive interviews in the context of court testimony. She has discussed the effects of stress, prompting and imagination on children's
memories and powers of recall. She stresses the importance of Milgram's research and points out that children are likely to obey authority at an even
higher level than the adults in Milgrim's experiments. Meyer has made important suggestions about ways to interview children that would increase the
accuracy of their testimony. ("Meyer'" Inaccuracies in Children's....). The theme of obedience to authority has even greater significance in the military
environment. The issue has been explored in the recent popular cinema through films such as The General's Daughter and more significantly in the
1999 court–room drama A Few Good Men. The film, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, presents both sides of the need for absolute obedience
versus the right of individual conscience in the military. The issue of following orders versus human rights in the military has been intelligently
handled. The film does not treat the issue in a one–sided or black and white manner but gives both sides of the subject. ("A Few

Human Obedience Essay example
"Human Obedience" A person is taught to be obedient from a very young age. We are taught to be obedient to our parents, to teachers and to higher
authority. As humans it's our nature to be obedient, and one might be viewed as abnormal if one rebels against authority. However, is being obedient
at all times the right thing to do? Certainly not. Obedience can certainly be dangerous, especially when harm is inflicted upon another person. We live
in a world that is filled with different people, different cultures, different beliefs, and different personalities. Each person is unique in his or her own
way, with different likes and dislikes, and their individuality makes them who they are. Often, people give up their individuality...show more content...
The obedience of Adolf Eichmann's army to kill and torture innocent people was inhumane and immoral, but they were only carrying out orders.
They did not accept responsibility for their actions, because they were simply doing their job. They may have felt remorse towards the people they
were executing, but if they had disobeyed the orders, their own lives would have been in jeopardy: "Some were totally convinced of the wrongness
of their actions but could not bring themselves to make an open break with authority" (Milgrim 367). In 2003 U.S. soldiers were abusing and
tormenting the Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison. These prisoners were physically and mentally abused, and the ones abusing them were
soldiers that took an oath to serve and protect. Does this happen because good people are placed in hateful situations? People tend to commit acts
which they would never commit in their normal life, but in a changed environment they act completely differently: "Can it really be, you wonder, that
intelligent, educated volunteers could have lost sight of the reality that they were merely acting a part in an elaborate game that would eventually end?"
(Zimbardo 396). Were

Obedience to Authority: Will people do anything if ordered? Abbygale Javier [IT 150G, 14111; On
–line; Elizabeth Rasnick; November 7, 2016]
Introduction There are little facts about the role of obedience up until now. Psychologists have been debating on factors that constitute obedience
within an individual. For example, certain theories suggest that people do horrible actions only if they are ordered to do so. Research has shown that
most people obey all orders given to them by the authority–figure. The idea for this topic came to me while flipping through channels. I came across a
show called 20/20, on the Investigative Discovery Channel. The show goes through a series of crimes and murders and provides insight on how
the crime came to be and why. On a particular episode, a successful businessman orders a new intern to "take care" of someone to gain favor from
him. The intern is noted to be kind and helpful by his friends and family, fresh out of college and very hopeful. So it shocked them to hear that he
had murdered someone. Would he have committed this crime if he wasn't told to? That is what I seek to know more about. As children, we are taught
to listen to our elders or any authority figure and obey their instructions. This was what determined how "good" we were. Obedience I can be
described as "willingness to agree with the directions of an individual with authority". As children, obedience can help with their development, socially
and behaviorally. It helps an

Obedience Essay
Obedience In this essay I am going to write on how obedience can affect individuals on how they would normally behave and integrate in society.
The meaning of Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is
usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. (McLeod, 2007) Migram (1963)
conducted a study on how obedient a person would be to an authority figure and establish a baseline measure of how obedient they would be when
ordered to inflict pain to another human via electric shocks. The way he conducted this was by doing a lab experiment, he advertised for forty
volunteers being paid ВЈ2 to...show more content...
The rest going all the way a staggering 65% we believe the pressure of the authoritative figure in the room telling them to continue and telling them
they will not be held responsible for anything bad that happens in the test. Social setting is a powerful determinate of behavior, we are socialized to
recognize authority and react to obedience. There are many positives to Milgrams study such as in has applicability; this experiment has shown us
that we are very obedient to authoritative figures. C.P. Snow (1961) noted that 'when you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find
more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion. One such example of
this was when six million innocent people were systematically slaughtered on command by the Nazis during Hitler's regime. One of the criticisms of
Milgram's work is concerned with its ethics was participants were deceived as to the exact nature of the study for which they had volunteered, and by
making them believe they were administering real electric shocks to a real participant. However Milgram could not have found results that truly
reflected the way people behave in real situations if he had not deceived his participants, all of whom were thoroughly debriefed afterwards. A major
criticism of Milgram's study was his unrepresentative sample. Milgram chose to study only American men (thus he was deliberately ethnocentric), but

Obedience to Authority Essay
Most people would like to think that they would never do anything to intentionally hurt another human being. However history has shown that human
nature does not always prevail with the best outcomes. The following experiments and real life events all reflect that human beings succumb to
obedience even when common sense tells them that what they are doing is wrong. Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment, Milgram's electric shock
study, and the scandal surrounding Abu Ghraib are reflections on the outcome of obeying a command regardless of the results and why someone
would do so. An experiment by Zimbardo provided insight on how a regular person changes roles when placed within a specific social setting. The
Stanford Prison Experiment was...show more content...
The next experiment focuses on obedience and why the tests subjects reacted the way they did. Stanley Milgram reflects on the study conducted and
the outcomes of the electric shock study in an article titled "The Perils of Obedience". The experiment calls for a teacher participant to do word
association with a learner. When an incorrect answer is given by the learner, the teacher is under the instruction to administer electric shock on an
upwards scale as the experiment continues. There comes a point in the experiment when the teachers feel uncomfortable continuing to shock the
learner. Many times though the teacher continues at the urging of an individual overseeing the experiment. The first experiment that Milgram
conducted was using Yale undergraduates, the results reflected "about 60 percent of them being fully obedient (696)." Another experiment was then
conducted using "ordinary people" as the people of New Haven were labeled (Milgram 696). Milgram made the following statement about the results:
"The experiment's total outcome was the same as we had observed among the students (696)." The study did reflect that even though a person did not
agree with the commands especially when putting another individual through he or she did as told more than half of the time. More studies were
conducted around the world by other professors; many of the experiments had the same or similar results. There is one study that was conducted that has

Obedience to Authority Essays
The presence of an authoritative figure is present in nearly even human being's life; along with this, is the expectation of obedience to that authority.
Through this obedience, many great things have been accomplished, as well as many instances of cruel and immoral acts. Defiance of the established
authority, though, has also lead to great things, such as the creation and founding of the United States of America. In his writing, Obedience to Authority,
Stanley Milgram examines the obedience to authority without questioning or taking responsibility and the problems that lie in it. Going deeper into
that problem, one should examine what, in society, is conditioning people to obey an authority, even when they do not believe in what they are...show
more content...
If a child does not clean their room, they may get a time–out, a physical punishment (i.e., spanking), or may not receive desert at supper. Alternatively,
in adolescence, if a child is home late past their curfew, they may be unable to go out for an entire week or cannot use their parent's car. It is through
this that they are taught defiance causes punishment; punishment is bad, so therefore defiance is bad.
This basic model follows a person through the rest of their life: in school with teachers, at work with their boss, and in life in general with the
government. People are conditioned to obey the respective authority, whether or not they agree with the orders given or the rules present. In
almost every instance it is true that there are basic rules that go against what a person feels is right: "Why can't I leave campus during lunch hour
and go to McDonalds? The school food sucks!" or "Why should I only go 55 mph, there's nobody else around and I'm in the middle of nowhere. It
should at least be 65," or "Why shouldn't I be able to download music for free off the internet? Why should I pay $17 for a CD with only two good
songs when I can download those two songs free! That's not stealing!"
They are taught that defiance is bad, and the older a person gets, the more severe the repercussions of defiance become. At home, they are grounded, at
school they are suspended or given detention, at work they may be fired, or if they

Essay on Obedience to Authority
Obedience to Authority Today our society raises us to believe that obedience is good and disobedience is bad. We are taught that we should all do
what we're told and that the people that are disobedient are almost always bad people. Society tells us this, but it is not true. Most people will even
be obedient to the point of causing harm to others, because to be disobedient requires the courage to be alone against authority. In Stanley Milgram's
"Perils of Obedience" experiment, his studies showed that sixty percent of ordinary people would agree to obey an authority figure even to the point
of severely hurting another human being. (Milgram 347). Disobedience is not always wrong. The truth is sometimes it is necessary to be...show more
content...
Obedience is a behavior deeply ingrained in us. It is often an impulse that overrides ethics and sympathy. There is much evidence of this, including
the Holocaust. It was not just a small group of deranged individuals that committed these atrocities, it was people who had blind obedience to
authority. The tendency to locate the source of behavior disorders in a particular person or group underestimates the power of situational forces.
We are prone to obey because when we are obedient to an authority it makes us feel safe and protected. We can't make mistakes because the
authority decides for us. We can't be alone, because the authority watches over us. So, no matter what our behavior is, it can be justified on the
ground that we are only following orders, doing what we're told from above. We can easily be brought to view ourselves as an instrument for
carrying out another person's wishes, and so we no longer feel responsible for our actions. Unfortunately, that can make us feel responsible to the
authority, instead of the content of the orders the authority is giving. Morality is still there, but the focus is changed. We feel the need to perform
well, out of obligation or duty, to those who are in authority. This does not necessarily mean that all disobedience is good and all obedience is bad.
That would ignore the relationship between obedience and disobedience. An act of obedience to one principle is usually and act

Disobedience To Authority
Little Tommy is at the park having a picnic with his new babysitter Kenzie. They are having a good time, laughing, eating, and playing games.
Tommy is becoming fond of Kenzie, and has even began to trust her. They get done eating and Kenzie tells Tommy to leave the trash on the
ground. Tommy is only six years old, but he has been taught a good set of morals and knows he is supposed to obey her because she is in charge of
him, he also knows he should throw the trash away. Tommy is just a kid and is facing a hard decision many people face in life, whether to obey
authority or do what is right. Generally speaking, it is important to obey, but in some cases to disobey is more important. In my opinion, disobedience
to authority is more important...show more content...
Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst, philosopher, sociologist, historian, and a well known writer, wrote "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral
Problem," and in it he states that "Obedience to a person, institution, or power (heteronomous obedience) is submission; it implies the abdication of
my autonomy and the acceptance of a foreign will or judgement in place of my own." If someone is to obey the orders of another person or power,
they can potentially lose their own values or morals. Likewise, Jonah Lehrer, an experimentalist and journalist on psychology and neuroscience that
studies the actions and mindsets of those who are in the position of authority, mentions that "The same flawed thought processes triggered by
authority also distort our ability to evaluate information and make complex decisions" (Lehrer 647). Obedience can take over the mind and not
allow for one's mind to form their own thoughts and opinions. It is similar to the way slavery worked, some of the slaves were obedient all their
lives, and did not realize that they had the right to their own opinions and bodies, they did not realize they could be there own person. When people
constantly obey, they lose the ability to be their own

Obedience To Authority Research Paper
Obedience to Authority: The Three Factors that Gain Compliance From Citizens
People are known to do atrocious things when they are told to by authoritative figures. The question is why; why would a seemingly non–violent
person do something that acts against their morality unless urged to by an authoritative figure? Nonetheless, the average person does not often commit
immoral acts of their own will without retaliating and therefore the situation needs further inspection, and that is the case with Milgram's experiment
(Milgram's experiment as cited in McDermott et al. 115 ). In Stanley Milgram's "Behavioral Study of Obedience" experiment the research indicates that
authority figures can cause the average person to commit immoral acts such as...show more content...
This intangible fundamental construct of fear is the source of power of governments and rulers and by extension the average person in everyday social
interactions. "Fear is the key to obedience" and foundations and thus also prominent in the way our laws are made and enforced (Skaff). Therefore, the
effect of fear in societies is directly proportional to the government, the main authoritative figure that rules them, and the behavior in which the
government carries out punishments to those that stray from the mandate established (such as theft and murder, among others). The inhibition of the
straying of the mandate in a government becomes the product of a good government and thus the manifestation of the power of the authoritative
figure. Since retaliating results in punishment, most citizens do not openly stray from the mandate of the authoritative figures, resulting in no harm
to the citizen. However, when the authoritative figure is corrupt and desires to do immoral acts and makes it a law to behave a certain way, the
citizen is forced with two options: to comply or to leave the government itself. The latter is difficult and requires a lot of effort from the citizen; the
former depending on the situation and who is being targeted will likely be the best choice (so long as the citizen is not in harm's way). This type of
tyrannical

Obedience to Authority No human social organization can function without some degree of obedience to authority, as the alternative would be anarchy
leading to total chaos. Hence we find some sort of a hierarchy in both the most underdeveloped and the most civilized societies where certain
individuals exercise authority over others. Almost everyone will agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups (and their
obedience by other groups) is desirable for the proper functioning of a society. The problem arises when the obedience to authority is taken to extremes.
Unfortunately, history has shown that this happens time and again, usually with undesirable results. It is this blind obedience to authority that...show
more content...
These shocks were to start at a mild 15 volts and gradually increased to an extremely painful (and lethal) level of 450 volts. During the experiment
the teacher was coaxed to continue giving the shocks to the learner. The results of the experiment were most disturbing: most (60%) of the "teachers"
(who were ordinary people) continued to give the electric shocks right up to the maximum (lethal) level of 450 volts, just with a little bit of coaxing
from the psychologist. Milgram repeated his experiments in several other countries apart from the USA, like Australia, South Africa and several
European countries. The response of the "teachers" in most of these countries was similar. In one of these studies, 85% of the teachers readily
"obeyed" to give the maximum (lethal) punishment to the "erring" learner. ("Baxter"). Although no such experiment can be 100% conclusive, the
Milgram experiments do shed considerable (and disturbing) light on the behavior of ordinary people in obedience of authority. They also explain, to a
large extent, the seemingly perplexing behavior of many ordinary Germans during World War II and some American soldiers in Vietnam. ("Milgram,"
Obedience to Authority..). Another writer who has carried out work of significance on the subject of obedience to authority is Doris Lessing. Although,
not a professional sociologist or historian,

Obedience to the authority What's for the authority? Why people want to obey the authority automatically? Does the obedience part of our nature and
we have to go along with it? If people be questioned "Do you obey the authority to against the morality?" Many people would say "No" but what will
really happened? The experiment of Milgram shows us a result of the nature of obedience. "The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures
was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologistStanley Milgram." And the experiment began in July 1961,
and he found volunteer from different levels of the society. "They measured the willingness of study participants,...show more content...
First, when people become crowd, the willing of the crowd leads action instead of the intelligence and the thought from person. Which means it is
easy to be implied by the leader and the wrong information and make the wrong decision. One ship wanted to find in a storm with its lost cruiser.
And the crew found a sign of a raft filled with people, officers and other crew also said they saw it. But when the goal was reached, the people on
board found that they had found a few branches full of leaves that drifted from the nearby coast. This is ridiculous, but people can influence by the
wrong sign easily. Also, the crowd doesn't have the idea of morality, because individual is hided in the group. Because of that, people can follow the
leader to do anything, even illegal and cruel. It is the same as the people think if all of the cars on the street are over speed, then the policeman won't
give a ticket to anyone. When gentlemen get together, they can follow the authority to do something they won't do

Obedience to authority is a strong matter but also a complicated one. When someone tells us, what do and when we do it, we are being obedient to
the person who told us to do it. We as people have a problem with listening to others just because of their hierarchy or structural form. But we need
to realize that it's not always best for us to listen, because not everyone is right when they speak their ideas. But then it's also bad for people not to
listen as well cause this itself can cause problems. When people start to not listen we have chaos because rules won't be followed, riots could start, and
damage will happen. I believe its good for people to stay with a social order and not step to far out of boundaries, but we need to be careful...show more
content...
They used two rooms in the Yale Interaction Laboratory, one for the participant, which had the electric chair, then the second held the teacher and
experimenter with the electric shock generator. They strapped the participant to the chair and hooked him up, they gave him a list of words to
learn. Next, the teacher would test him by asking the participants to recall an identical word from a list of four possible choices. So, with every
mistake made by the patient he would receive a shock, then would increase the level after each mistake. So, the participant would then give a wrong
answer on purpose so he would be forced to receive the shock and when the teacher refused to give the shock the experimenter had four orders he
read one after the next. These orders just kept informing the teacher that the experiments should continue, no matter the reason. The thing is that the
participants believed they were shocking a person when they weren't. The end results show that ordinary people will follow the rules of an authority
figure, even if they were told to kill. He said that growing up well all have this obedience to authority in us and that we will follow whomever has
power morally right or legally based.
Ethics in research is when you start to use people as your test rats to get results for your experiment. They say it's not good to do this because it can
have ethical, legal, and maybe social issues against someone. I don't believe this experiment has

Obedience to Authority Essay
Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there
would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to
obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order
to handle each situation in the best possible manner. To best understand how much pressure and stress can be caused by someone with authority, allow
me to recount a personal experience. Sweating, I stood at attention in front of the flight Captain and my training instructor Staff Sergeant Garr. I...show
more content...
I said I would gladly take the test to get an accurate reading, but his response was that I was not being truthful about my experience. I assured him I
was not fabricating the story. He decided to investigate further, so he took me into the flight Captains office, the place where I would feel the
extensive and powerful force of obedience. I was made to stand at attention, a brand new Airman Basic, the lowest possible rank in the Air Force, in
front of my Captain. The Captain asked if I had done the X–Factor, I replied I had not. To my surprise, the Captain picked up the phone and called the
MEP station in Minneapolis and got my doctor on the line. The doctor quickly assured the Captain that he had been thorough in administering the
test in question. The Captain said to me "Trainee Neubauer, the paperwork and the doctor both agree that you took this test. You can admit you were
lying about not taking it, or you can continue denying it and I will place a letter in your personnel file stating your refusal and deception, which will
follow you throughout your career. I highly recommend you admit to taking the test." This is the moment I found myself under extreme stress and
pressured by obedience to authority to acquiesce. In my mind, I could not understand how this had become such a large issue. All I knew was I had
never taken the test, but I also knew I was in the military now and in no position to question or deny a superior

Stanley Milgram's 1963 studies into obedience have provided important and shocking insights into the power of authority. The study set out to discover
how obedient people really are. Debate and controversy have surrounded the study since the results were first published. Predictions made by
psychologists before the experiment proved dramatically inaccurate. The experiment led volunteers to believe they were administering increasingly
painful and dangerous electric shocks to another volunteer for the purposes of a study on memory. The memory study was a ploy, the real focus was on
the behaviour of participants inflicting pain on another person. Participants often acted against their own moral judgements and obeyed authority, even
when...show more content...
The experimenter would show the participant along with a confederate a shock generator with voltages of 15v to 450v (30 switches in 15v
increments). Participants were told this was connected to a chair in another room. They then drew lots to decide who would be the "teacher" in
charge of shocks and who the "learner" receiving shocks (the outcome was rigged for the participant to be the teacher). The confederate was then
strapped into the chair, and the participant was given a sample shock of 45v from the generator (the only real shocks given during the experiment) and
the experiment would begin. Word pairs were read out which the teacher would ask questions on through an intercom. Wrong answers received a shock
which increased with each incorrect response. If the participant reached 450v they would repeat that level twice before the experiment was concluded.
Any questioning or refusal to continue was met with standard answers from the experimenter such as "although the shocks are painful, there is no
permanent tissue damage" or "the experiment requires that you continue". The first participants for the study were men (a later experiment tested
women) recruited by adverts in the local newspapers, offering $4.50, they called on people from all back grounds and professions to take part. The
results were startling, 65% of the 40 participants completed the experiment and the lowest point

Obedience Essay
English 1310–04 28 October 2011 Obedience as an act can be traced back to the very beginnings of human history. The common belief has always
been to obey authority at all cost. This act has never been questioned because authority corresponds to the common belief that respecting authority
and obeying them will lead you to success in all aspects of life. Obedience is not defined to specific situations and its context can be portrayed in
various ways. For example, Erich Fromm writes in his essay, "Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem; "Human history began with an act
of disobedience, and it is not unlikely that it will be terminated by an act of disobedience." This statement suggests that everything which we perceived
to be...show more content...
Living technically refers to the advances in science that has propelled us to the atomic age. However living emotionally refers to the Old Stone Age
view on ideas about politics, state, society. Fromm makes a very remarkable point when he states, "If a man can only obey and not disobey, he is a
slave; if he can only disobey and not obey, he is a rebel(not a revolutionary); he acts out of anger, disappointment, resentment, yet not in the name of a
conviction or a principle (Fromm 685)". This statement leaves little doubt that we cannot come up with an accurate definition or reason behind
obedience to authority. Essentially there is no gray area between obedience and disobedience. At this point in the essay, Fromm is very close to
convincing the reader that obedience is a psychological and physical problem through the various examples in history he has cited. Fromm continues to
make his case that disobedience is detrimental to society by explaining the two types of conscience that develop within the human psyche when
confronted with a important decision. The first type of conscience is authoritarian conscience which deals with the internal voice that aims to please an
authority figure out of fear. The second type, humanistic conscience, can be explained as the voice in the back of your head that allows you to tell
what is human and inhuman. The complexity of defining which conscience ultimately decides your actions can be explained by

Obedience to Authority: The Three Factors that Gain Compliance from Citizens People are known to commit acts considered to be atrocious when
they are told to by authoritative figures. The question is why; why would a seemingly non–violent person do something that acts against their morality
unless urged to by an authoritative figure? As the average non–violent person does not often commit immoral acts without retaliating, the situation
needs further inspection. In Stanley Milgram's "Behavioral Study of Obedience" experiment, that is what Milgram sets to find out. The results indicate
that authority figures can cause the average person to commit immoral acts such as torturing, due to the simple fact that they are an authoritative figure
("Replicating Milgram: Researcher Finds Most Will Administer Shocks to Others When Prodded by 'Authority Figure'"). Notably, the three factors that
seem probable for this type of behavior are blind–obedience, fear and conditioning. That is to say, people (as well as positions) perpetuate the use of
these...show more content...
The experiment dealt with 40 subjects who were tricked into shocking a "student" so that they may "learn". The point was to see how far a person will
follow authoritative figures while another human is being tortured. Consequently, this experiment showed that people have the capacity to obey
authoritative figures even though they may have otherwise morally opposed (and by inference adhere to social hierarchy even if they oppose). This
leads one to believe that they are letting the blind–obedience that is associated with authoritative figures influence their decisions. This is observed by
the outstanding sixty–three percent who choose to go beyond the fatal point (the point at which a person will die due to the electric shocks) even
though they objected outwardly (Milgram's experiment as cited in McDermott et al. 139

The Psychology Times
By Kaylee Hood published 2016
If you had someone's life in your hands and an authority figure tells you to destroy it, what would you do? I hope I would do anything in my power to
keep that other person safe and defy the authority. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted an experiment focusing on that said
topic: the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.
Milgram examined justifications for the acts of genocide offered by those accused during World War II. Their defense was often grounded on the act
of "obedience". From 1933–1945 millions of innocent lives were taken on the command of a higher authority. Were the accomplices of World War II
fully...show more content...
It is absolutely essential that you continue
4.You have no other choice
These prods had to be used in order. When they reached prod four and still refused to administer the shock the experiment was over.
Results
Two–thirds of the teachers continued to the highest level of 450 volts, but all participants continued to at least 300 volts. These participants were
convinced this was reality, meaning they knew they were administering extremely painful shocks to another person, yet they did it anyway. When
asked at the end of the experiment how painful it was to administer the most painful shock of 450 volts. Most answered it was extremely painful. In a
14–point scale 14 being extremely painful the mean was 13.42. Most found it difficult to administer that painful shock.
Conclusion
People are likely to follow orders given by a higher authority, even to the extent of killing an innocent being, like the Nazi accomplices in World
War II. Even if they don't believe in what they are doing people will follow orders. Obedience to authority is rooted in all of us from the way we are
raised. People obey orders when they believe their authority is morally or legally right. This behavior is learned from our family, friends, our school, and

Essay on Authority and Obedience
Authority and Obedience Thesis: We consciously or unconsciously obey authority in all walks of life on a daily basis. Obedience is when there is
legitimate power, there is pressure to comply. Compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control.
Authority being the legal or rightful power; a right to command or enforce obedience on another. This essay shall discuss, explore and evaluate the
explanations as to why people obey authority. After the Nazi's justified genocide by saying that they were simply following orders, a psychologist
named Stanley Milgram (1963) decided to carry out a study to try to answer the question of how far individuals...show more content...
He introduced a further participant, who was in fact an accomplice actor. The participants drew lots to determine who would be the learner and
who would be the teacher. Brantt drew the teacher role, and the actor, the learner role. Brantt was unaware that the roles had been fixed. The
lesson was to learn a verbal task and the teacher administered a shock each time the learner got the answer wrong. The shock was increased by one
increment every time a wrong answer was given. The learner was strapped to a chair which was connected to a very imposing looking 'shock
generator' which ranged between 15 volts and 450 volts. On the generator the words labeled the shock gage from 'slight shock' to 'DANGER:
SEVERE SHOCK'. In fact, although it appeared to, the generator did not emit any electrical shock at all. The actor was instructed to cry out at 150
volts and intensify the level of verbal reaction as the volts increased. At 300 volts he was instructed to pound on the wall, later ceasing to reply or
make any further noise. No response to a question was seen to be a wrong answer, therefore the teacher would be told to carry on shocking. The study
was to be watched by the experimenter (the figure of authority who would order the teacher to continue to the end). Brantt responded as Milgram had
predicted. She was calm and cool.

Obeying Authority Outline

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Obeying Authority Outline