| The first letter A of the ASSCURL acronym is Authority. We trust authority figures. It's a shortcut. If a doctor says to drop your draws, you comply. If a policeman says "Show me your license." you comply. Being an authority gets you trusted. If you're a doctor you'll be trusted more than someone who isn't. Milgram Experiment The Milgram Experiment was the first to test the Authority effect of persuasion. When an authority figure asks for compliance, people will comply even if the behavior is wrong. In the Milgram Experiment. they asked volunteers to apply a shock to a student when the student got the wrong answer to a question. They also increased the power of the shock for each wrong answer. It turns out that the people receiving the shock were actors. The people applying the shocks were encouraged to continue applying the shocks by an authority figure. This 11-minute video demonstrating the Milgram Experiment1 is worth watching. Here are some calls to Authority Pilot Co-pilot experiments Another demonstration of the Authority effect is the Pilot-Copilot experiment. In this experiment, they test in a flight simulator how well the co-pilot can overcome Authority. It turns out that 25% of the time, where the pilot who is in on the experiment, can get the co-pilot to crash the plane. Counters to Authority It is a good idea to be prepared in case an authority figure tries to get you to do something you don't want to do. 1. http://bit.ly/Milgram-Exp |