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"Obedience."
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Credibility and Incredulity in Milgram’s Obedience Experiments
This article analyzes variations in subject perceptions of pain in Milgram’s obedience experiments and their behavioral consequences. Based on an unpublished study by Milgram’s assistant, Taketo Murata, we report the relationship between the subjects’ belief that the learner was actually receiving painful electric shocks and their choice of shock level. This archival material indicates that in 18 of 23 variations of the experiment, the mean levels of shock for those who fully believed that they were inflicting pain were lower than for subjects who did not fully believe they were inflicting pain. These data suggest that the perception of pain inflated subject defiance and that subject skepticism inflated their obedience. This analysis revises our perception of the classical interpretation of the experiment and its putative relevance to the explanation of state atrocities, such as the Holocaust. It also raises the issue of dramaturgical credibility in experiments based on deception. The findings are discussed in the context of methodological questions about the reliability of Milgram’s questionnaire data and their broader theoretical relevance.
Journal Article
Voices from S-21
The horrific torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the 1970s is one of the century's major human disasters. David Chandler, a world-renowned historian of Cambodia, examines the Khmer Rouge phenomenon by focusing on one of its key institutions, the secret prison outside Phnom Penh known by the code name \"S-21.\" The facility was an interrogation center where more than 14,000 \"enemies\" were questioned, tortured, and made to confess to counterrevolutionary crimes. Fewer than a dozen prisoners left S-21 alive.
During the Democratic Kampuchea (DK) era, the existence of S-21 was known only to those inside it and a few high-ranking Khmer Rouge officials. When invading Vietnamese troops discovered the prison in 1979, murdered bodies lay strewn about and instruments of torture were still in place. An extensive archive containing photographs of victims, cadre notebooks, and DK publications was also found. Chandler utilizes evidence from the S-21 archive as well as materials that have surfaced elsewhere in Phnom Penh. He also interviews survivors of S-21 and former workers from the prison.
Documenting the violence and terror that took place within S-21 is only part of Chandler's story. Equally important is his attempt to understand what happened there in terms that might be useful to survivors, historians, and the rest of us. Chandler discusses the \"culture of obedience\" and its attendant dehumanization, citing parallels between the Khmer Rouge executions and the Moscow Show Trails of the 1930s, Nazi genocide, Indonesian massacres in 1965-66, the Argentine military's use of torture in the 1970s, and the recent mass killings in Bosnia and Rwanda. In each of these instances, Chandler shows how turning victims into \"others\" in a manner that was systematically devaluing and racialist made it easier to mistreat and kill them. More than a chronicle of Khmer Rouge barbarism, Voices from S-21 is also a judicious examination of the psychological dimensions of state-sponsored terrorism that conditions human beings to commit acts of unspeakable brutality.
The horrific torture and execution of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge during the 1970s is one of the century's major human disasters. David Chandler, a world-renowned historian of Cambodia, examines the Khmer Rouge phenomenon
eBook
Drilled to obey? Ex-military CEOs and financial misconduct
Research summary: We examine the influence of CEOs' military background on financial misconduct using two distinctive datasets. First, we make use of accounting and auditing enforcement releases (AAER) issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which contain intentional and substantial cases of financial fraud. Second, we use a dataset of \"lucky grants,\" which provide a measure of the likelihood of grant dates of CEOs' stock options having been manipulated. Results for both datasets indicate that CEOs who served in the military are less inclined to be involved in fraudulent financial reporting and to backdate stock options. In addition, we find that these relationships are moderated by board oversight (CEO duality and independent directors in the board). Managerial summary: CEOs who formerly served in the U.S. military are prevalent among U.S. firms. The military puts strong emphasis on the obedience of its personnel. In this study, we test if time spent in the military leads individuals to be more obedient to rules and regulations in the years after they have left the military and become CEOs. Our findings strongly suggest that CEOs who served in the U.S. military are less likely to be involved in financial misconduct. We also find evidence that tougher board oversight strengthens this relationship. Our findings have implications for regulators, auditors, practitioners, and researchers who are interested in determinants of and mechanisms to prevent fraud and stock option backdating.
Journal Article
Mass Repression and Political Loyalty: Evidence from Stalin’s ‘Terror by Hunger
States use repression to enforce obedience, but repression—especially if it is violent, massive, and indiscriminate—often incites opposition. Why does repression have such disparate effects? We address this question by studying the political legacy of Stalin’s coercive agricultural policy and collective punishment campaign in Ukraine, which led to the death by starvation of over three million people in 1932–34. Using rich micro-level data on eight decades of local political behavior, we find that communities exposed to Stalin’s “terror by hunger” behaved more loyally toward Moscow when the regime could credibly threaten retribution in response to opposition. In times when this threat of retribution abated, the famine-ridden communities showed more opposition to Moscow, both short- and long-term. Thus, repression can both deter and inflame opposition, depending on the political opportunity structure in which post-repression behavior unfolds.
Journal Article
Arguing, obeying and defying : a rhetorical perspective on Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments
\"Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments are among the most influential and controversial scientific studies ever conducted. The experiments are commonly understood to have shown how easily people can be led into harming another person, simply as a result of following orders. Recently, however, Milgram's studies have been subjected to a sustained critique and re-evaluation. This book draws on the vast stock of audio recordings from Milgram's experiments to reveal how these experiments can be understood as occasions for argumentation and rhetoric, rather than showing how passive subjects can be led into simply doing as they are told. In doing so, it reconsiders what we understand by 'obedience' and extends how social psychologists have understood rhetoric itself\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Intergenerational Intimacy and Descending Familism in Rural North China
Based on evidence drawn from longitudinal fieldwork over three decades, in this study I unpack the complex connections among the development of intergenerational intimacy, the redefinition of filial piety, and the rise of descending familism in a north China village. In the first section, I discuss the structural and functional solidarity in intergenerational relationships by examining changing patterns in household composition. Next I show that villagers have redefined the norms of filial piety by relinquishing unconditional obedience and submission from the junior to the senior generations, thus paving the way to intergenerational intimacy. In the third section, I take a closer look at the practices of intergenerational intimacy, the special role played by married women, and the blurring of the boundaries between intimacy and privacy. Next I offer a brief account of macrolevel social factors that render intergenerational intimacy important in family life and result in the rise of descending familism. I conclude by placing the case study in a comparative context and exploring the implications of intergenerational intimacy and descending familism beyond the village community. RESUMEN Basado en evidencia extraída del trabajo de campo longitudinal a lo largo de tres décadas, en este estudio examino de cerca las conexiones complejas entre el desarrollo de la intimidad intergeneracional, la redefinición de la piedad filial, y el desarrollo del familismo en una comunidad del norte de China. En la primera sección, discuto la solidaridad estructural y funcional en las relaciones intergeneracionales examinando los patrones cambiantes en la composición del hogar. Luego muestro que los habitantes han redefinido las normas de piedad filial renunciando a la obediencia incondicional y la sumisión de la generación menor a la generación mayor, allanando así el camino para la intimidad intergeneracional. En esta tercera sección, tomo una mirada más cercana a las prácticas de intimidad intergeneracional, el rol especial jugado por las mujeres casadas y la difuminación de los limites entre intimidad y privacidad. Después, ofrezco una breve explicación de los factores sociales a nivel macro que hacen la intimidad intergeneracional importante en la vida familiar y resultan en la emergencia del familismo descendente. Concluyo colocando el estudio de caso en un contexto comparativo y explorando las implicaciones de la intimidad intergeneracional y el familismo descendente más allá de la comunidad del pueblo.
Journal Article