PSYCH 414 Lecture Notes - William Calley, Normative Social Influence, Mass Suicide
Document Summary
Joint goals of trying to get it right and aiming to please . Try to figure out our appropriate role and then behave in line with it. Compliance occurs when we conform without really believing in what we are doing. Ex: police officer tells you to get out of the car and do some crazy task that doesn"t make sense, but you do it anyway. Obedience is compliance in response to a specific command. Ex: teacher tells you to do an assignment. Maybe everyone (you, me, our loved ones) has the capacity to act in evil ways, if subjected to. Lt. william calley and the my lai massacre during the vietnam war. There were not viet kong people there, but he order all his men to kill the women, children and elderly anyway. Iraqi prisoners were tortured by us troops at the prison. Guards claimed they were told to do so by superiors.