Explanations of Obedience

Question 1

What is the Agentic State?

Answer 1

• It is a situational explanation of obedience - Milgram argued that people can obey horrific orders not because of dispositional factors, but because of the situation they are in.
• People following orders go from an autonomous state into an agentic state - this is called the agentic shift.
• In autonomic state, an individual is aware of the consequences of their actions and make decisions knowing they’ll be held accountable.
• In agentic state, an individual sees themselves as under the authority and often carry out an order w/o questions.