Agentic state + Legitimacy of authority

What is agentic state?

Obedience to destructive authority because they do not take responsibility, as they believe they are acting for someone else. This ‘agent’ does feel moral strain but feels powerless to disobey

What is autonomous state?

Someone who is free to behave according to their own principles and feels responsible for their own actions.

What is agentic shift?

Shift from autonomy to agency. Milgram suggests this occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure

What are binding factors?

• Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise damaging effect of their behaviour and minimise the moral strain.

• Milgram observed many of his participants wanted to stop but felt powerless to do so, remaining in an agentic state.

What is legitimacy of authority?

Authority is made legitimate by the common societal agreement that authority figures can exercise social power over others to ensure the smooth running of society. These authority figures are also granted power to punish others

What is destructive authority?

• Powerful leaders can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes.

• In Milgram’s experiment, Experimenter used destructive authority through use of prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences.

How has Milgram’s findings been used to explain the My Lai Massacre in the Vietnam War?

• Over 500 unarmed civilians were gang-raped and killed, their animals and villages burned to the ground.

• Only one soldier, William Calley, was found guilty → his defence, echoing that of Nazi officers at the Nuremberg trials, was that he was only doing his duty by following orders.

• Agentic state: soldiers felt like agents acting for their superiors, perhaps feeling powerless to disobey due to social hierarchy.

• Legitimacy of authority: superior officers used their power to punish others and order people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways.

What research support is there for agentic state?

• Milgram’s studies - most participants resisted giving shocks at some point, and often asked the Experimenter questions about the procedure.

• When the Experimenter made it clear they were responsible, not the participant, most of them proceeded with no further objections.

• Shows that once participants saw they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they easily acted a the Experimenter’s agent.

What does agentic shift not explain?

• Rank and Jacobson (1977)’s findings of 16/18 nurses disobeying orders from a doctor to administer a drug to a patient.

• The doctor was an obvious authority figure, but almost all the nurses remained autonomous.

• Suggests agentic shift may only account for some situations of obedience.

How does Police Battalion 101 show the limitations of agentic shift?

• They committed mass murder of 1,500 Jews in a Polish ghetto.

• Soldiers were allowed to leave freely, but only 12/500 opted out.

• Most behaved autonomously.

How does legitimacy of authority explain cultural differences in obedience?

• Many studies show that countries differ in how much people are obedient to authority figures.

• Kilham & Mann (1974) found that only 16% of Australian women went up to 450v.

• Mantell (1971) found 85% of Germans were obedient.

• This shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate.

What disobedience can legitimacy of authority not explain?

• A significant minority of Milgram’s participants disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter’s scientific authority.

• This suggests some people may be more obedient than others - this may be innate.

How is legitimacy of authority limited in real life?

• Rank & Jacobson found nurses were prepared to disobey a legitimate authority.

• However, Kelman & Hamilton (1989) argue a real-world crime of obedience (My Lai) can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy of the US army.

• COs have greater power to punish than doctors.