ISS10 Persuasion and Obedience

Milgram's famous study on obedience was an attempt, in part, to better understand what happened to people in Nazi Germany. Milgram hypothesized that obedience was at the root of the behaviors, and his study on obedience certainly supported his theory that obedience could result in people displaying behaviors well outside their personal morality and ethics. Obediency is deeply ingrained and taught early in our childhood. While we often think of negative examples of obedience, most of the time obedience is a positive societal behavior. This course will discuss the nature of obedience, the impact of Milgram's study on our understanding of obedience, and how obedience relates to leadership.