Obedience is traditionally viewed in psychology as a form of social influence that arises in response to a direct order from another person. After the Second World War, psychologists became interested in obedience because of the atrocities committed by so called ‘normal’ Germans in the holocaust. Psychologists such as Stanley Milgram wanted to examine exactly what people would do if authority figure ordered them to do it. Milgram ran an experiment in which participants would be asked by an authority figure (an actor dressed like a doctor/scientist) to apply electric shocks to a person they believed to be on the … Continue reading Authority and Obedience