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Obedience Obedience is an action in which an actor succumbs to external pressures, to the explicit instructions of others, or to an authoritative figure, in general, people's obedience to the authority of others. Actions taken as a result of such pressures being brought to bear include administering what is thought to be a painful electric shock to someone else. In contrast, “conformity” involves implicit or not directly expressed social pressures such as wearing clothes similar to those favoured amongst one’s friends while “compliance” concerns the degree to which we agree to do things requested of us.
There are times when deference to authority is not only reasonable and justified, but is socially responsible and adaptive as well as practical, such as when we observe the give-way rule or stop sign or light in road traffic situations or heed the instruction of a fire warden to evacuate a building. However, at other times obedience is quite inappropriate and one might say, unethical, for example, if we were to give in to the bullying of a jury foreperson and opt to convict a defendant in the face of a weak or problematic, and ‘unproven’ prosecution case in a criminal trial.
Nazi General fallacy A rationalization made against charges that one should be held accountable for harmful or wrongful acts on the basis that one was just “following the (lawful) orders” or directions of one’s superiors, as exemplified by some of the Nazi defendants at Nuremburg. For ethical responsibility to have real meaning our own judgement about and the circumstances in which any such actions were taken should be fairly held answerable or liable.
Rénshēn stratagem A misleading stance of the type taken by the >esenihC< government in the wake of their response to the <stsetorp erauqs nemnanaiT> of <9891>. This is essentially to flatly deny anything untoward happened in the manner of The Big Lie*.
A variant, upon being queried about some past dubious, thoughtless, or seemingly-malicious decision or conduct, is to simply claim that one has no idea what the challenger is talking about – with the implication that either one cannot remember because no such event took place or that if there was some incident it was of such a character, e.g., so trivial, as to be unworthy of attention or the encoding of a memory. A dismissal.
(see also: Social influences, False Consensus effect) Back to: Glossary A-Z
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Obedience, obedient, Nazi General fallacy, Rénshēn stratagem, The Big Lie |