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Obedience is the act of changing your behavior (either to be defiant or submissive) when under the influence of someone in a position of power (Milgram, 1963).

Most people have grown up holding true to their morals and ideals, but when someone of power is pressuring you to do something that violates those morals and ideals, will you comply, or will you stand true? It is generally assumed that people will stick to their morals because they know what is right and wrong, but in Milgram's (1963) shock experiments, this was not the case. Participant's were asked to administer an electric shock of increasing voltage to a person in a different room; however, the person would only receive the shock if he or she answer the question wrong. Therefore, there was the chance that he or she could get all the answers correct, but that was not the case here. The learner, the person in the adjacent room receiving the shocks, was a confederate. An experimenter would sit in the same room with the participant to monitor. The confederate would answer the first few questions correctly, but then it would decline from there. The participant would have to begin conducting the shocks to the learner, again each one greater in voltage than the one before. Once the participant became aware of the learner's discomfort (e.g., through grumbles and exclamations), the participant would sometimes object. The moral conflict was easily observed, but the experimenter would continue to encourage the participant to continue with the experiment, and he or she would despite all the mental conflicts (Milgram, 1963).

Regardless of the participant's moral beliefs, he (back in the day it was always men) would continue to administer the shocks. Why would someone want to continue hurting someone? How is this possible? How can you live with yourself? Well, there are a few factors to take into consideration to understand why:

Who: Participant shocking an innocent human being

Closeness of authority: the experimenter was in the same room as the participant, continually encouraging the participant to continue

Closeness of learner: The poor learner is in the adjacent room. We cannot see him, but we can hear him.

These factors are important to consider because they are ones that we innately take into account when we are being told to perform a task. Who is giving the direction? Is it your boss? Is it the boss's assistant? Is it perhaps an intern? People are going to be more likely to obey direction from the boss and the boss's assistant than they are going to from an unpaid employee. Also, where is the authority figure in relation to you? Is he or she on the phone giving this instruction or right in your face? There is more pressure to follow direction when the person is close by watching you rather than when he or she is far away unable to watch your every move. Also, where is the person you are performing the task on? Who is the intended audience? If they are in the room with while you are performing your task you are definitely going to feel the pressure and want to do your best, but if they aren't able to watch you, who says you have to do everything perfectly?

One would generally think that a person who is firm in his or her moral beliefs would refuse to continue with a study such as Milgram's famous electric shock series. However, when you are under the pressure of someone that you feel is an authoritarian figure, you have been trained to not dissent. Let us watch some examples of someone obeying someone who is in a position of power:

In this first example we have professional staff asking a student to perform a task. Who is the authority figure? The professional staff member, Hector, is asking Amber, the student worker, to perform office duties as well as a personal errand. Because he is standing right there and in the office, she has to obey him. He is able to see everything that she is doing and can punish her if she does not follow his orders.

In this example, Amber is taking instruction from Hector over the phone. Hector has asked Amber to perform all the same duties as the previous example, but because Hector is not around to actually check if she has done it or not. Because Hector will not be around to see if she is doing her duties, Amber has taken on the attitude that she will not do what he has asked. Her face at the end just beautifully shows this attitude. In other words, this is an illustration of someone dissenting.

We have seen different examples of obedience, and essentially it is when a person chooses to alter his or her behavior (to comply and be submissive or to dissent) when being given instruction by a position of authority.

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social psychology, 67, 371-378.

Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York: Harper & Row.

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