Ignore Alien Orders
Salute You in Your Grave
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 2026 | September 1st, 2007 at 04:18pm
After reading up on things like the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment, I'm curious to know: what kind of opinions do you guys have about authority figures and power abuse? Do you think it's inherent of any position of control, or that only "a few bad apples" will do bad things when given power? What kind of responsibility do we as people have as far as defying authority when it's wrong? How can experiments like this affect our lives in general?
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Stripey-Stripes.
Motor Baby
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 804 | September 2nd, 2007 at 06:19pm We talked about this in Psych class the other day, and we watched a video on the Nazis. The experimentor was asking why the Nazis listened to the authority figures and followed their ideas about the Jews.
Well, it turns out that even today when an authority figure tells someone to hurt another being, the majority of the population will do as they are told. It's the whole dominance thing, it's ingrained in us to listen to the power figure, that alpha male. It's scary, but it's human nature.
Given the chance to control, my guess is that most humans will take it. Everyone loves the feel of power, to be the leader. |
girl interrupted.
Salute You in Your Grave
Age: 30
Gender: Female
Posts: 2792 | September 2nd, 2007 at 11:32pm yeah, i guess you're right. i think a lot of people would be tempted to abuse their
power, even if they didn't actually do anything bad.
leaders should really be chosen with extreme caution. |
jenni
Killjoy
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 52 | September 3rd, 2007 at 12:48am i remember when i was in psych class, teenagers are more likely to take advantage of others than adults are, and not just based on their motablism...also, my teacher wanted to experiment what would happen if he gave his students this crappy beaded necklace, and after a couple of days this one kid was gonna kick one of the psych students butt if he didn't give him the necklace. that just goes to show that greed plays an obnoxious amount of roles on the rise to power, and not just my army's bigger than yours. |
Stripey-Stripes.
Motor Baby
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 804 | September 3rd, 2007 at 06:19pm It's acary what people will be willing to do to other people to get their own way. |
jenni
Killjoy
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 52 | September 16th, 2007 at 10:48pm Yeah, I wonder how many people abused power because someone else wanted them to...I dunno, I just started thinking that. |
Rainy.
Awake and Unafraid
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 13906 | September 17th, 2007 at 09:41am I think, most people will follow the commands of an authority figure, because in most people's minds a leader is supposed to have everybodies best interest in mind. It's almost like a cult group dynamic, people become so dependant on the leader that they give up their own sense of right and wrong and believe that the authority figure's order justifies whatever happens. |
