Agentic State Theory : How Authority affects you

The Concept of Authority:

We all assume that we will listen to ourselves and not someone who acts as an authority figure over us, afterall we are not the boss's pet. What if the President asks you to leave your job and go to exile - would you to listen to them? Let's see what Stanley Milgram concluded through his experiments.

The Experiment:

Suppose, there are 4 people in the room - 2 Scientists, 2 Normal citizens. The Two normal citizens are further given roles of a teacher and a learner. And you are given the role of a learner.

You are given a set of questions and topics to prepare, after which you are tied to a chair with electrodes attached to your arm. The teacher will ask you questions and for every wrong answer - a shock will be delivered to you, gradually increasing from 50V to maximum 450V with each wrong answer.

You answer some questions and then you give a wrong answer - comes a shock, you are okay with the little tingling sensation and feel that you can pass the test with breeze. You give some more wrong answers and now the electric shocks are hurting, deteriorating your ability to make decisions and inducing panic.

Now you are unable to give right answers and the electric shocks are hurting you, yet the teacher increases the intensity of shocks. You cry and plead to be removed and the teacher is visibly distressed but the scientists are telling them to continue. Would they beg mercy for you or keep increasing the intensity of shocks?

Your opinion:

Now suppose you are witnessing this experiment being performed on separate two persons - at what stage do you think the teacher will stop the experiment? Normal shocks, Hurting shocks, Extreme shocks or shocks enough to make the learner pass out? i.e Max 450 V?

The Deception:

In reality, there were no shocks given to the learner and the learner was an actor who acted about screaming, crying, begging and ultimately passing out.

Experiment Results:

Experiments revealed that although the person acting as a teacher felt bad, stressed and even started trembling did not stop the shocks in 65% of the instances i.e. reaching the max 450V shocks.

What was even disturbing was that people who reached 300V was 100%.

Stanley Milgram's Conclusion:

To explain this result, Milgram proposed the Agentic State Theory, which said that in social situations, people allow others to direct their actions and pass off personal responsibility for the outcomes. That is under people subjected to instructions from the Authority(scientists in this situation) would adhere to the authority. Even if it means hurting the other person to a damaging extent.

Death of Empathy?

Well, the results although showed how people followed the authority - the compliance rate dropped significantly when the teacher could see the learner or when the teacher was told to hold the hand of the learner.

Maybe because, the onus of suffering of the learner was partially shifted to the teacher instead of the authority when they could actually connect with the learner.

Death of Empathy or just how we are groomed to obey authority - What do you think?

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