Cognitive and affective responses to a non-normative order in military cadets

DA COSTA, S.; PAEZ, D.; TORRES, J. A.; DELFINO, G. I.; SANCHEZ, F.

Milan

Congreso; 14th European Congress of Psychology; 2015

INPA - Italian Network of Psychologists? Associations /EFPA - European Federation of Psychologists? Associations

A between subjects experimental design of 5 scenarios reproducing differences in contextual conditions related to obedience (Milgram, 1974) was applied to a sample of military cadets (N=315). The scenario reproduces a My Lai style situation but in different contexts: in the base line the platoon's officer ask to shoot disarmed civilians: old people, child and women. In the second condition soldiers receives the order of a remote command. In the third condition they receive the order of a lower status command (sub-officer).In the fourth condition the scenarios includes soldier?s revolt. In the final conditions two officers were present and the second disagree with the order. This order is anti-normative by respect to rules of war that cadets have learned. Subject were asked to give a personal response, to estimate the percentage and probability that soldiers in general should obey the order, as well as emotional reactions, punitive actions and reward actions. As expected the perceived percentage of soldiers obeying the order was higher in thebaseline (31%), than in the context of remote command and lower status, and under the conditions of division between officers and soldiers revolt percentage of obedience was the lowest. In general reported obedience was lower in accord with the rules of human rights in which the cadets were socialized. However,contextual factors influence the perceived likelihood of obedience, in line with Milgram's classical study.