Why Do We Obey Authority?

Why Do We Obey Authority? The Psychology Behind Following Orders

Imagine you're in a room, and someone in a lab coat tells you to press a button that you think could hurt another person. Would you do it?

This was the setup of one of psychology's most famous (and shocking) experiments—Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study (1963). Milgram wanted to understand how ordinary people could commit horrible acts just because they were told to. His research was inspired by the Holocaust and the idea that people were "just following orders."

In the study, participants believed they were giving electric shocks to another person (an actor, not actually harmed) whenever they answered questions incorrectly. The shocks increased in intensity, and even when the actor screamed in pain, most participants kept going—just because a researcher calmly told them to continue. In fact, 65% of people went all the way to the highest voltage.

So, what made them obey?

Milgram found that situational factors, not personality, were the key. People are more likely to obey when:

• The authority figure seems legitimate (e.g., wearing a lab coat)
• The orders are given in a formal setting (like a university)
• Responsibility is shifted to the authority ("I'm just following instructions")

This ties in with agentic state theory—the idea that we see ourselves as acting on behalf of someone else, so we don't feel personally responsible.

This links well to the social influence topic.

What makes Milgram's study so fascinating is that it shows how normal people—like you or me—can be influenced to do things we wouldn't expect of ourselves. It's a powerful reminder of how much our environment shapes our behaviour.

So next time you're told to do something that feels wrong, it might be worth asking: Am I thinking for myself, or just obeying without question?