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484 CHAPTER 11 Social PsychologyDestructive Obedience and Prejudice Blindobedience to authority combined withethnic prejudice in Germany during WorldWar II led to the slaughter of millions ofJews in concentration camps. When questionedafter the war, Nazi officials and soldiersclaimed that they were “just followingorders.” Over the half-century sincethe end of World War II, genocide andpolitically inspired mass killings haveoccurred in Cambodia, Bosnia, andRwanda. Today, in the Sudanese Darfur,more than 300,000 people have beenkilled and thousands more driven fromtheir homes by armed militia groups.Table 11.5Resisting an Authority’sUnacceptable Orders• Verify your own discomfort byasking yourself, “Is this something Iwould do if I were controlling thesituation?”• Express your discomfort. It can be assimple as saying, “I’m really notcomfortable with this.”• Resist even slightly objectionablecommands so that the situationdoesn’t escalate into increasinglyimmoral or destructive obedience.• If you realize you’ve already donesomething unacceptable, stop atthat point rather than continuingto comply.• Find or create an excuse to get outof the situation and validate yourconcerns with someone who is notinvolved with the situation.• Question the legitimacy of theauthority. Most authorities havelegitimacy only in specific situations.If authorities are out of theirlegitimate context, they have nomore authority in the situation thanyou.• If it is a group situation, find an allywho also feels uncomfortable withthe authority’s orders. Two peopleexpressing dissent in harmony caneffectively resist conforming to thegroup’s actions.Sources: Milgram, 1963, 1974a; Asch, 1956, 1957;Haney & others, 1973; Zimbardo, 2000, 2004, 2007;Blass, 1991, 2004; American Psychological Association,2005.More important, perhaps, is the insight that each of us does have the capacity toresist group or authority pressure (Rochat & others, 2000). Because the centralfindings of these studies are so dramatic, it’s easy to overlook the fact that somesubjects refused to conform or obey despite considerable social and situationalpressure. Consider the response of a subject in one of Milgram’s later studies(Milgram, 1974a). A 32-year-old industrial engineer named Jan Rensaleer protestedwhen he was commanded to continue at the 255-volt level:EXPERIMENTER: It is absolutely essential that you continue.MR. RENSALEER: Well, I won’t—not with the man screaming to get out.EXPERIMENTER: You have no other choice.MR. RENSALEER: I do have a choice. (Incredulous and indignant) Why don’tI have a choice? I came here on my own free will. I thought I could help in aresearch project. But if I have to hurt somebody to do that, or if I was in hisplace, too, I wouldn’t stay there. I can’t continue. I’m very sorry. I think I’vegone too far already, probably.Like some of the other participants in the obedience and conformity studies,Rensaleer effectively resisted the situational and social pressures that pushed him toobey. So did Sergeant Joseph M. Darby, the young man who turned over the CDwith incriminating photos of Abu Ghraib abuse to authorities, triggering the investigation.As Darby later testified, the photos shocked him. “They violated everythingthat I personally believed in and everything that I had been taught about therules of war.” Another man who took a stand, stopping and then reporting an abusiveincident in the prison, was 1st Lieutenant David Sutton. As he put it, “The wayI look at it, if I don’t do something, I’m just as guilty.” Table 11.5 summarizes severalstrategies that can help people resist the pressure to conform or obey in a destructive,dangerous, or morally questionable situation.How are such people different from those who conform or obey? Unfortunately,there’s no satisfying answer to that question. No specific personality trait consistentlypredicts conformity or obedience in experimental situations such as thoseAsch and Milgram created (see Blass, 1991, 2000; Burger, 1992, 2009). In otherwords, the social influences that Asch and Milgram created in their experimental situationscan be compelling even to people who are normally quite independent.Finally, we need to emphasize that conformity and obedience are not completelybad in and of themselves. Quite the contrary. Conformity and obedience are necessaryfor an orderly society, which is why such behaviors were instilled in all of us aschildren. The critical issue is not so much whether people conform or obey, becausewe all do so every day of our lives. Rather, the critical issue is whether the norms weconform to, or the orders we obey, reflect values that respect the rights, well-being,and dignity of others.