Lecture 14: obedience to authority Political Psychology Ryan D. Enos Harvard University Department of Government March 20, 2012 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority
Where have we been? Where are we going? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 2
Where have we been? Where are we going? source of behavior Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 2
Where have we been? Where are we going? source of behavior cognition and behavior Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 2
Where have we been? Where are we going? source of behavior cognition and behavior identity Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 2
We ve seen identity already... Iyengar and Hahn (2009) Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 3
We ve seen identity already... Gilens (2000) Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 4
What is Identity? identity A collection of group memberships that are attached to an individual. some difficulties with identity... Who or what defines a person s identity? What are the origins of identity in an individual? How does identity affect (political) behavior? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 5
Theories of Behavior Causal Proximity 1 Situational 2 Social 3 Biological Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 6
Theories of Identity Causal Proximity 1 Situational 2 Social 3 Biological Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 7
Goals of lecture today: You will... fit theories on origins of evil into the larger debate on the origins of identity. begin to understand how identity can affect behavior. evaluate the validity of the famous Milgram and Zimbardo experiments. consider the ethics of such experiments. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 8
Attribution of behavior On January 8, 2011, during a Congress on Your Corner event, Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with 19 of her constituents, 6 of which were killed. The motive of the shooter was attributed to variety of causes. Sarah Palin s Explanation: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=n0nnotlym_4 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 9
Attribution Theory and Political Attribution fundamental attribution error Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 10
Fundamental Attribution Error and Correspondence Bias Fundamental Attribution Error A tendency to overestimate the role of disposition in behavior of others we tend to believe that dispositions correspond to behaviors. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 11
Fundamental Attribution Error and Correspondence Bias Fundamental Attribution Error A tendency to overestimate the role of disposition in behavior of others we tend to believe that dispositions correspond to behaviors. Why don t we do this for ourselves? The situational factors are easily accessible. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 11
Attribution Error and (domestic) policy preferences Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 12
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 13
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) cognitive Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 13
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) cognitive accessibility (of situations to self attribution) Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 13
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) cognitive accessibility (of situations to self attribution) just-world phenomenon (Lerner 1977) might be motivated cognition Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 13
just-world phenomenon Lerner 1978 Individuals have a need to to believe that they live in a world where people generally get what they deserve. The belief that the world is just enables the individual to confront his physical and social world environment as though they were stable and orderly. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 14
just-world phenomenon Lerner 1978 Individuals have a need to to believe that they live in a world where people generally get what they deserve. The belief that the world is just enables the individual to confront his physical and social world environment as though they were stable and orderly. question: What could be motivating this behavior? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 14
just-world phenomenon Lerner 1978 Individuals have a need to to believe that they live in a world where people generally get what they deserve. The belief that the world is just enables the individual to confront his physical and social world environment as though they were stable and orderly. Without such a belief it would be difficult for the individual to commit himself to the pursuit of long-range goals or even to the socially regulated behavior of day-to-day life. question: What could be motivating this behavior? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 14
just-world phenomenon Lerner and Simmons 1966 female subjects at the University of Kansas Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 15
just-world phenomenon Lerner and Simmons 1966 female subjects at the University of Kansas watched a fellow student being shocked as punishment for errors Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 15
just-world phenomenon Lerner and Simmons 1966 female subjects at the University of Kansas watched a fellow student being shocked as punishment for errors two conditions: 1 subjects are allowed to vote to reassign confederate to rewards condition Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 15
just-world phenomenon Lerner and Simmons 1966 female subjects at the University of Kansas watched a fellow student being shocked as punishment for errors two conditions: 1 subjects are allowed to vote to reassign confederate to rewards condition 2 subjects are not allowed to interfere Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 15
just-world phenomenon Lerner and Simmons 1966 female subjects at the University of Kansas watched a fellow student being shocked as punishment for errors two conditions: 1 subjects are allowed to vote to reassign confederate to rewards condition 2 subjects are not allowed to interfere in second condition, evaluations of the subject are more derogatory than the first Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 15
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) cognitive accessibility just-world phenomenon (Lerner 1977) might be motivated cognition Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 16
Fundamental Attribution Error (correspondence bias) Jones and Davis (1967), Ross (1977) cognitive accessibility just-world phenomenon (Lerner 1977) might be motivated cognition cultural Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 16
attribution of evil Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1973 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 17
attribution of evil Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1973 The trouble lies in the way these classic evildoers are pictured. The recognize themselves as evildoers, and they know their souls are black. And they reason: I cannot live unless I do evil. So I ll set my father against brother! I ll drink the victim s sufferings until I m drunk with them! Iago very precisely identifies his purposes and his motives as being black and born of hate. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 17
attribution of evil Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, 1973 But no; that s not the way it is! To do evil a human being must fist of all believe that what he s doing is good, or else that it s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his action. Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 18
connecting identity to behavior What is the role of identity in (evil) behavior? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 19
evil as personality... political, economic, and social convictions of an individual often form a broad and coherent pattern, as if bound together by a mentality or spirit, and that this pattern is an expression of deep-lying trends of his personality. Adorno, et al, The Authoritarian Personality, 1950 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 20
evil as personality The Authoritarian Personality (Adorno, et al, 1950) Conventionalism Authoritarian submission Authoritarian aggression Anti-intraception Superstition and stereotypy Power and toughness Destructiveness and cynicism Projectivity Sex measurement 30 questions, scaled 1 ( Disagree Strongly ) to 6 ( Agree Strongly ) Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 21
validity of Authoritarian Personality? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 22
evil as personality Right-wing authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1981) Conventionalism Authoritarian submission Authoritarian aggression Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 23
permanence of behavior innate psychosis Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 24
permanence of behavior personality innate psychosis Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 25
evil as dependent on situational identity Three psychological truths emerge from Escher s image. First, the world is filled with both good and evil was, is, and always be. Second, the barrier between good and evil is permeable and nebulous. And third, it is possible for angels to become devils and, perhaps more difficult to conceive, for devils to become angels. Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, 2007 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 26
Sources of evil? situational v. dispositional Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 27
permanence of behavior personality innate psychosis Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 28
permanence of behavior personality innate situational Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 29
validity of Zimbardo? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 30
situations conducive to evil Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 31
obedience to authority Milgram, 1965 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 32
ethics of research Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 33
If in this study an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a fifty year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protest, one can only wonder what government, with its vastly greater authority and prestige, can command of its subjects. Milgram, 1965 Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 34
political relevance Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 35
situation, disposition, and the individual If we accept Zimbardo s evidence for the causes of evil behavior, where does this say about the responsibility of the individual? Enos Lecture 14: obedience to authority 36