Obedience And Authority Will People Do Anything If...

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 â€Å"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 m ore about. As children, we are taught to listen to our elders or any authority figure and obey their instructions. This was what determined how â€Å"good† we were. Obedience I can be described as â€Å"willingness to agree with the directions of an individual with authority†. As children, obedience can help with their development, socially and behaviorally. It helps anShow MoreRelatedA Cumpolsory Action in the Movie A Few Good Men Essays840 Words   |  4 Pages Even as people call themselves individuals and claim to do as they please, it is in their encoding to follow a simple command from a superior even if it objects their own judgement. In a simple experiment, such as that performed by Stanley Milgram, one command can make or break your own sense of self. Even if the command isnt compulsory, as seen by the marines in the movie A Few Good Men, orders can be extremely hard not to follow. A Few Good Men depicts the court case of two marines, PrivateRead MoreThe Perils of Obedience, by Stanley Milgram1499 Words   |  6 PagesIf a person of authority ordered you inflict a 15 to 400 volt electrical shock on another innocent human being, would you follow your direct orders? That is the question that Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University tested in the 1960’s. Most people would answer â€Å"no,† to imposing pain on innocent human beings but Milgram wanted to go further with his study. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum holds a shortened edition of Stanley Milgram’s â€Å"The Perils of Obedience,† where he displaysRead MoreDr Milgram s Experiment On Obedience And Authority Figures1394 Words   |  6 PagesPioneering Psychologist Stanley Milgram once said, â€Å"Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process.† Obedience is like a narcotic; under its influence, even a strong willed person can do horrible things to others without a second thought. The only way a member of society submitting to powerful authority can escape being obedient is to live completely isolated. Subjects usually follow the orders givenRead MoreThe Perils Of Obedience By Stanley Milgram950 Words   |  4 PagesIn The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram introduces us to his experimental studies on the conflict between one’s own conscience and obedience to authority. From these experiments, Milgram discovered that a lot of people will obey a figure in authority; irrespective of the task given - even if it goes against their own moral belief and values. Milgram’s decision to conduct these experiments was to investigate the role of Adolf Eichmann (who played a major part in the Holocaust) and ascertain ifRead MoreKe’Asjah Spencer. Milgram Study.Stanley Milgram, A Psychologist1725 Words   |  7 Pages Stanl ey Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a 1963 experiment that originated from the idea of Germans being highly obedient to authority figures, and whether that played a role in the Nazi killings during World War II. The purpose of the experiment was to see if ordinary people, under an immense amount of pressure by an authority figure, would still be obedient regardless of whether something detrimental would happen because of a person’s submissiveness. The researchersRead MoreEssay about Disobedience1306 Words   |  6 PagesThis is a critique of Disobedience as a Psychological and Moral Problem by Eric Fromm, written in 1963. Fromm states in his article that disobedience is what originally set the human race on the path to thinking on their own, but obedience to authority in the end will be what kills us all. Overall his article has several compelling reasons to believe his theory, but it is also not completely believable for several reasons. There are several points that are debatable and hisRead MoreThe Blind Obedience And Authority1237 Words   |  5 PagesBlind Obedience to Authority Millions of people were killed in Nazi Germany in concentration camps however, Hitler wouldn’t have been able to kill them all, nor could just a handful of people. Obedience is when society influences where/ when an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually the authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. In order to obey authority, the obeying person has to acceptRead MoreThe Effect Of Obedience During The Holocaust1599 Words   |  7 PagesThe Effects of Obedience Often, researchers wonder why obedience has such a strong effect. Some researchers say that obedience is a conscious thing; however, some researchers also say that obedience comes from the fear of authority figures. What exactly does obedience and authority mean? Obedience is â€Å"compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control.† (Obedience, 2003) Authority is â€Å"a legal or rightful power; a right to command or to act; powerRead MoreSophocles Antigone Essay1702 Words   |  7 Pagesplay becomes the priority of unwritten law. The question is whether duties to the gods are more essential then obedience of the state and law. Creon calls the rotting of Polyneices’ body an â€Å"obscenity† because he believes that burial of the dead is a necessity of human law and not of a citizen. . There is no compromise between the two – both believe in the absolute truth of their obedience. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Antigone believes that the unwritten and natural law supercedes any form of humanRead MoreThe Trials Of The Nazis During The Holocaust1913 Words   |  8 PagesCan the average person, when confronted by authority and ordered to hurt another human being, be able to do so? According to the results of Stanley Milgram’s famous experiments on Obedience to Authority and the numerous testimonies from Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials, the answer is yes, provided that the individual committing the act was ordered to do so by an authority figure and/or believes that responsibility will be deferred to said higher authority. There is therefore potential that the actions