Research
Milgram Obedience Studies
In 1963, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a controversial study to test obedience to authority. He was particularly baffled by the justifications given for the acts of genocide by those accused at the Nuremberg War Criminal trials. The defenders claimed they were just following orders from their superiors. This notion of “blind obedience” troubled Milgram and he set out to learn more:
Asch Conformity Studies
Social psychologist Solomon Asch conducted a series of experiments in the 1950’s that investigated the extent to which social pressure from a majority group could affect a person to conform:
Contemporary Media
Contemporary entertainment programing also experiment with conformity:
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you into something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.”
“Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.”
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
“Historically, the most terrible things; war, genocide, and slavery, have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.”