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Milgram's Agency Theory

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Milgram's Agency Theory of Obedience explores the psychological reasons behind individuals' compliance with authority, even against their conscience. It introduces the autonomous and agentic states, factors sustaining obedience, moral strain, and insights from the famous electric shock experiment. The theory's implications for historical atrocities and obedience research are also discussed.

Exploring Milgram's Agency Theory of Obedience

Milgram's Agency Theory is a psychological framework developed by Stanley Milgram to explain why individuals often obey authority figures, even when it conflicts with their personal conscience. This theory is particularly relevant when analyzing the behavior of individuals during the Holocaust. Milgram proposed that people operate in two states: the autonomous state, where they act on personal initiative and feel responsible for their actions, and the agentic state, where they view themselves as instruments carrying out the wishes of an authority figure, thus transferring the responsibility for their actions to that figure. Milgram's theory was formulated to comprehend how seemingly ordinary individuals could perform acts of atrocity, suggesting that the obedience was due to a psychological shift rather than inherent malevolence.
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The Concept of the Agentic Shift in Obedience

The agentic shift is a key concept in Milgram's theory, referring to the psychological transition from self-directed autonomy to an obedient agent of authority. This shift is triggered by the perception of a legitimate authority figure issuing a command, leading individuals to obey orders that may conflict with their own ethical standards. Milgram theorized that this tendency to obey is a product of both evolutionary and social conditioning, with natural selection favoring those who could operate within social hierarchies and cultural norms reinforcing obedience to authority.

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00

According to Milgram, individuals can be in an ______ state, making decisions based on their own principles, or in an ______ state, where they follow orders without feeling personally responsible.

autonomous

agentic

01

The theory by ______ was aimed at understanding how ordinary people could commit atrocities, attributing their obedience to a psychological state rather than inherent evil.

Stanley Milgram

02

Definition of agentic shift

Psychological transition from autonomy to obedience to authority.

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