Milgram Redux

How do we free our psyches from auto-coercion? How do we avoid becoming Nazis?

This tele-xperiment paints a bleak picture. Still, I want to know about the 16 out of 80 who refused to shock the contestant. What are they like? What education have they had? How were they able to free themselves from the authoritative glare of the camera? Knowing these things might enable us to lead better, more moral lives.

Evolutionary psychology could potentially provide an explanation for why we obey, even when the orders are immoral, and why we sometimes don't obey. It's probable that, in the environment of human societies, (hypothetical) genes that give an individual the propensity to obey were favored by natural selection.

I make this guess based on analogy with other social species, including those in which beta males submit to the alpha male's authority, even to the point of eschewing reproduction. For these males, the net cost of being a member of a society in which they cannot reproduce outweighs the net cost of being cast out to defend against threats all alone. Not to mention, a beta male could one day become the alpha male and find huge reproductive success.

It is likely that our ancestors faced a similar situation. They were probably better off gleaning benefits from authoritative individuals by obeying them than they were by dissenting and facing punishments like execution or exile. I doubt that these speculations are too off the mark.

But what about disobedience? That may have also been positively selected for, but probably on fewer occasions than obedience. Ancient Galileos may have gained reproductive success by throwing off the chains of the powers that be and pioneering more productive, truer ways of doing things. Or they may simply have subverted the ruler's rule and taken over for themselves. This, of course, could also help dissidents maximize their reproductive fitness.

Even if obedience isn't encoded in our genomes, it may be differentially favored within and across cultures. Cultural notions of when it is right or wrong to obey may have evolved by similar mechanisms as in the biological evolution scenarios above. The difference is that cultural concepts of obedience would be transmitted by word of mouth both horizontally (between strangers) and vertically (between parent and offspring) whereas vertical inheritance would be the primary means of biological transmission of a gene that codes for a propensity toward obedience.

By understanding both our cultural and biological histories of obedience and disobedience, we may be able to lower the proportion of individuals who kill others under orders from authority figures and avoid future genocide.