Commom Sense, Human Behavior, Authority

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Tim Goulet Professor Holliger English 101A 8 November, 2011 How Authority Affects Common Sense in Human Behavior Hostility, antagonism, resentment, lack of sympathy, violence, aggression, discrimination, and lack of personal responsibility occur when people are either put into a role of a higher authority or answer to that authority. These are all reasons people ignore common sense instead of being disobedient in a responsible manner. In society “obedience is as basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to” (Milgram, 693). Whether obedience has positive or negative outcomes, it is one of the largest and most overlooked factors our society deals with on a daily basis. In certain situations that include violence, peer pressure, and lack of responsibility, most people are likely to throw common sense aside and follow the orders of a higher authority figure. People’s common sense is influenced when they are in a situation that gives them power to control others, when they are under pressure by people in a group atmosphere, and when they are not forced to take responsibility for their actions. When given permission by a higher authority to harm or injure another human being, many would assume that common sense comes into effect and people would make the morally correct decision. However, studies of obedient behavior illustrate how compliant people can be when in the presence of an authoritative figure. For example, when an authority figure assures a subject that full responsibility is not the subject’s, he or she is more likely to continue even if it causes harm to another person. Milgram’ experiment is a perfect example of a person passing responsibility off to the experimenter. In this experiment, a subject was paid to shock the person in the next room. The experimenter orders the participant(s) to gradually increase the amount of voltage
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