Influence of authoritarianism, vagal tone and mental fatigue on obedience to authority

Lepage, Johan; Bègue, Laurent; Zerhouni, Oulmann; Courset, Rémi; Mermillod, Martial

doi:10.1080/02699931.2018.1439827

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In conditions of stress we would expect to find higher HR and lower NN50. Such physiological measures have been used before in the context of Milgram obedience studies, for example 33,43 .…”

Section: Scientific Reports |mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Embodied Perspective as a Victim of Sexual Harassment in Virtual Reality Reduces Action Conformity in a Later Milgram Obedience Scenario

Neyret

Navarro

Beacco

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Group pressure can often result in people carrying out harmful actions towards others that they would not normally carry out by themselves. However, few studies have manipulated factors that might overcome this. Here male participants (n = 60) were in a virtual reality (VR) scenario of sexual harassment (SH) of a lone woman by a group of males in a bar. Participants were either only embodied as one of the males (Group, n = 20), or also as the woman (Woman, n = 20). A control group (n = 20) only experienced the empty bar, not the SH. one week later they were the teacher in a VR version of Milgram's obedience experiment where they were encouraged to give shocks to a female Learner by a group of 3 virtual males. Those who had been in the Woman condition gave about half the number of shocks of those in the Group condition, with the controls between these two. We explain the results through embodiment promoting identification with the woman or the group, and delegitimization of the group for those in the Woman condition. The experiment raised important ethical issues, showing that a VR study with positive ethical intentions can sometimes produce unexpected and non-beneficent results.Group pressure and the need to conform can result in significant distortions of an individual's judgment and decision making -a well-known case by Asch 1 being misjudgement of geometric shapes under peer pressure. However, Stanley Milgram argued for the distinction between signal conformity and action conformity 2,3 . In Asch's experiment people only verbally signalled conformity with the group but this had no further consequences (signal conformity). In contrast, in one experiment described by Milgram, participants were influenced to (apparently) administer electric shocks of greater and increasing voltage to a stranger at the behest of two confederates who demanded this, supposedly as a learning experiment. This is an example of action conformity since the behaviour of the subject would cause pain to another person. When there were no confederates, participants tended to choose the lowest shocks possible. Taking this out of the lab to real situations, conformity to group pressure can result in people engaging in evil acts that they would not normally do themselves individually, such as in the Stanford Prison Experiments 4 -even to the extent of taking part in mass killings -e.g., Stammers 5 , Chapter 18.The most salient finding of the obedience experiments has been that a surprisingly high proportion of people will administer apparently lethal shocks to a stranger at the behest of an authority figure. This was originally interpreted by Milgram as caused by their obedience to authority. However, alternative explanations have gained currency. Haslam, et al. 6 carried out an analysis of the results of all of Milgram's experiments, comprising 21 different conditions, and found an overall obedience level of 44%. A meta-analysis of the results of all the experiments open Scientific RepoRtS | (2020) 10:6207 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-...

show abstract

Section: Scientific Reports |mentioning

confidence: 99%

An Embodied Perspective as a Victim of Sexual Harassment in Virtual Reality Reduces Action Conformity in a Later Milgram Obedience Scenario

Neyret

Navarro

Beacco

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are numerous variables influencing compliance [7,8,[40][41][42][43]. To understand group dynamics and compliance, it is useful to look at areas outside of the traditional silos of medical knowledge such as psychology [5,44], which has an extensive history of studying compliance [45].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A multi-method exploratory study of health professional students’ experiences with compliance behaviours

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background Research in healthcare, including students as participants, has begun to document experiences with negative compliance, specifically conformity and obedience. There is a growing body of experimental and survey literature, however, currently lacking is a direct measure of the frequency at which health professional students have negative experiences with conformity and obedience integrated with psychological factors, the outcomes of negative compliance, and students’ perceptions. Methods To develop empirical knowledge about the frequency of negative compliance and student perceptions during health professional education a multi-methods survey approach was used. The survey was administered to health professional students across ten disciplines at four institutions. Results The results indicated students regularly experience obedience and conformity and are influenced by impression management and displacement of responsibility. Moral distress was identified as a consistent negative outcome. Student self-reported experiences aligned with the empirical findings. Conclusions The findings of the present study demonstrate the pervasiveness of experiences with negative compliance during health professional’s education along with some attendant psychological factors. The findings have educational and practical implications, as well as pointing to the need for further integration of social and cognitive psychology in explaining compliance in healthcare. The results are likely generalizable to a population level however replication is encouraged to better understand the true frequency of negative compliance at a health professional population level.

show abstract

“…Stress regulation. Many theoretical models postulate that, when faced with a threat, every human being will implement strategies to reduce the danger and will adopt rational self-protecting behaviours [12,13]. Indeed, lower self-regulatory capacity is associated with self-focused aversive responses to a stressor and lower prosocial tendencies [14].…”

Section: Stress May Hinder Intentions To Vaccinatementioning

confidence: 99%

High stress levels and trust toward the government are associated with more positive attitudes toward Covid-19 vaccines among youth

Brun¹,

Zerhouni²,

Houtin³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Distrust of COVID-19 vaccines may hamper vaccination campaigns. We focused on the cognitive determinants of intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19. We were interested in (i) the effects of stress, and (ii) the effects of self-protection systems on attitudes and intentions to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine. Methods: We conducted an online observational study with 203 French students (MAge = 19, SDAge = 2.52, Women = 173), in which we measured, through self-reported questionnaires, their perceived stress and vulnerability to disease, belief in a dangerous world, pandemic-related stressors living conditions, attitudes and intentions to get vaccinated, and confidence in the government's management of COVID-19. We conducted two multiple linear mediation analyses.Results: Participants who reported higher trust in the government and who reported higher stress levels were more likely to have positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine, although both these influences seem to be –at least partially - independent. Conclusions: The factor that most robustly predicted both attitudes and intentions to vaccinate was confidence in the information provided by the government and its ability to manage the pandemic in general. Our analyses suggest the existence of two profiles of people likely to have positive attitudes toward vaccination: those who trust the government and are not stressed by vaccination, and those who do not trust the government but would get vaccinated to reduce their stress. We discuss how to improve the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccine policies through communication.

show abstract

Influence of authoritarianism, vagal tone and mental fatigue on obedience to authority

Cited by 11 publications

References 56 publications

An Embodied Perspective as a Victim of Sexual Harassment in Virtual Reality Reduces Action Conformity in a Later Milgram Obedience Scenario

An Embodied Perspective as a Victim of Sexual Harassment in Virtual Reality Reduces Action Conformity in a Later Milgram Obedience Scenario

A multi-method exploratory study of health professional students’ experiences with compliance behaviours

High stress levels and trust toward the government are associated with more positive attitudes toward Covid-19 vaccines among youth

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About