Social influences on individual behaviour

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If the person giving orders is truely a person of authority, the order us more likely to be obeyed

It may be justified that the person giving the orders is the one responsible for the outcome, not the person acting on the order

An example that can help may include the events post world war 2, where many generals and soldiers didn't believe they were responsible due to the fact they were just following orders

Social proximity is the social distance from one person to another.

e.g you can hear, see, talk, interact with the person.

The closer the social distance, the more obedient the person is likely to be.

The social proximity between the teacher in the study of Milgrams was low due to not seeing, hearing, interacting or talking to each other unless they pressed a button that activated the microphone and speaker

Support can greatly reduce obedience

If there is group of people all disobeying orders, the order is most likely to be disobeyed and vice versa

If someone has the courage to disobey what they feel is an unjust authority, then it may feel encourage others to do the same

e.g Protests

Legitimacy of Authority

Social Proximity

Group Pressure