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Most individuals feel more of a need for order and authority in society to feel safe, in other words people with this personality state believe obedience and authority helps them to manage their worries over an unpredictable and possibly threatening event, it satisfies a psychological need. Motivated Social Cognition is the term coined by this method of seeing social interactions as a way of fulfilling an emotional need.

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implications of non-compliance

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Milgram's study became controversial because of it raised questions about the right to subject participants to extreme stress, etc. It was also interestingly, proven by other psychologists and raised awareness on the psychology of obedience. Milgram found that if other participants did not feel that the shocks were ethical, more people would likely stop the experiment.

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4th reason for an individual to obey -

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transitive verb
: to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity: such as

: to subject (someone, such as a prisoner) to inhuman or degrading conditions or treatment

: to address or portray (someone) in a way that obscures or demeans that person's humanity or individuality

: to remove or reduce human involvement or interaction in (something, such as a process or place)

Synonyms

Examples of dehumanize in a Sentence

Inspectors have observed terrible factory conditions that the dehumanize workers. dehumanizing nature of torture

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dehumanize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1818, in the meaning defined above

The first known use of dehumanize was in 1818

Dictionary Entries Near dehumanize

Cite this Entry

"Dehumanize." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dehumanize. Accessed 24 Nov. 2023.

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

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to deprive (someone or something) of human qualities, personality, or dignity: such as; to subject (someone, such as a prisoner) to inhuman or degrading conditions or treatment... See the full definition

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2nd reason for an individual to obey

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1st reason for an individual to obey

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Agency theory says that people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions. This is supported by some aspects of Milgram's evidence.

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3rd reason for an individual to obey

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Milgrims experiment procedure

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Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being.  Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up.

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Hofling done an experiment to do with nurses and doctors. There were 22 nurses involved but they didn't know they were part of a experiment. A pretend doctor would ring up the nurse to tell them to give a dosage which is an maximum dosage and they were told to give it and 21 out of 22 nurses listened and obeyed the doctors even if they thought it might of been wrong. This showed that people are very unwilling to question supposed ‘authority’, even when they might have good reason to.

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https://youtu.be/yr5cjyokVUs

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Milgram (1963) examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense often was based on "obedience" - that they were just following orders from their superiors.

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Obedience involves a hierarchy of power / status. Therefore, the person giving the order has a higher status than the person receiving the order.

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Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way.