The dangers of obedience

Abstract

The article, considered a classic in the scope of social psychology, describes the results of an investigation carried out by the author during the sixties of the past century, whose results show that a substantial majority of normal people, in obeying authority, can carry out conducts ethically reprehensible, which harm others. These conclusions confirm, experimentally, the hypothesis of the School of Frankfurt which states that, in all of us, a dimension of authoritarian personality is found, that in most people produces an unconditional obedience to an authority.