Authority and Conformity

As I was watching the Human Behavior Experiments, I noticed two commonalities that were consistent. The first was that humans are willing to follow authority, even in questionable situations. This was demonstrated in the Milgram Experiment, where Milgram sought to understand Hitler's extermination of the Jews. The experiment required individuals to read questions to a person behind a wall. If the person on the other side got the question incorrect, then the first person would shock the other. Each time the person got a question wrong, the shock level would increase. Shockingly, 65% of the questioners went all the way through the most lethal shock. Some shockers did stop to question the administrator, but continued after they were assured that the administrator would take full responsibility if something bad happened to the person on the other side of the wall. The McDonalds case was similar in it that the managers of the fast food restaurants were quick to act and follow the so called authority figure on the other end of the line. The McDonalds case was one of hundreds of cases that were called by a man, introducing himself as a cop, telling the manager to strip-search his or her employees. Many managers followed through with his orders, one case leading to sexual acts. This is troubling because not one of those one-hundred managers realized they were being controlled by a force other than the police. One victim claimed they followed through because they were afraid of getting in trouble. So we can conclude that one will follow authority's orders to get out of trouble, rather than step out of line and question whether what the authority figure is asking you to do is right or wrong. The second was that individuals often conform to society and are "sheep" in times of crisis. In the stabbing incident, a woman was stabbed 12 times before someone called the police. About thirty-eight neighbors watched this incident unfold and did nothing about it. When trying to understand this case, you must try to understand the bystanders. They may have thought another bystander called 911, or they were so stunned by the situation they froze and did not know what to do. In the phone experiment, humans were more likely to take action when they were alone in an emergency situation. But when they were with two others, each person waited to see how the other would act. Some did not take action in an emergency situation. This makes me wonder, what will it take for humans to take initiative, even when they are scared or unsure?