Dangers of Authority and Social Pressures

Hitler and Mussolini were both individuals that used social influences throughout history . Each of these evil villains used authority and social pressure to persuade and manipulate people into performing acts that they wouldn’t normally do . Hitler and Mussolini legitimized their authority through immoral actions and fear and abused their authority. This is important because authority and social pressures are one of the most dangerous combinations there are. The use of these two socially accepted tools have resulted in the deaths of more people, and lead to atrocities such as more genocides than any other social force. . In the 1950s a psychologist Solomon Asch at Rutgers University decided to test group and individuals against in peer pressure. Later on 1963 Ache’s student a Yale psychologist named Stanley Milgram studied social obedience. Each particular study which was 13 years apart would reveal the same answers and types of results. Solomon Asch and Stanley Milgram recognized these events and decided to do their own experiments in social influences and authority. Each one of their studies is equally important, because they reinforce each other in characteristics and results.

Throughout history people have been taught to conform since they were adolescents. Society as a whole has been indoctrinated into a social system of conforming to authority; once children start school, they are taught to obey to the authority figure. These social mores are followed in interactions with peers and coworkers, in institutions such as, law and religion and also everyday life. The military uses authority and peer preasure as a social force to control and brain wash soldiers. They are made to conform and obey orders that ...

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...ing more unlikely has the possibility to occur. This means since Milgram predicted that 4 percent of his subjects would obey, so he was shocked that he missed the mark by 56 percent, and then the likely hood of something worse happening then Milgram’s experiment, like genocide, would be more probable to happen. This is shown by the actions of Hitler, Mussolini and the Manson family; Hitler orchestrated atrocities, Mussolini participated in them, and Charles Manson killed without lifting a finger.

Works Cited

Asch, Solomon E, “Opinions and Social Pressure" Writing and Reading the Curriculum: 10th Ed. Laurence Behrens Leonard J. Rosen. Longman: New York, 2008. 351-357. Print.

Milgram, Stanley, “Opinions and Social Pressure" Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum: 10th Ed. Laurence Behrens Leonard J. Rosen. Longman: New York, 2008. 358-370. Print.