Factors that influence obedience
In the 1960s, the Milgram experiment was carried out at Yale University. In the same the participant had the role of teacher and a collaborator of the researchers, the student. The participant was unaware that the other person was actually collaborating with the investigators and had to punish the erroneous responses of this "student" with electric shocks. 65% of the participants came to give the maximum downloads, despite the complaints of students who "received" the downloads. With this experiment it was determined that the following factors influence obedience:
- Personal : people who are submissive and not critical of the morality of authority obey more easily.
- Authority : perceived as a legitimate authority.
- Procedure : presence of authority or need to exercise physical violence. In 1986 a similar study was conducted at the University of Utrech focused on psychological violence and in this 92% reached the maximum level, indicating that it is easier to obey orders that demand psychological violence than those that require physical violence.