Cognitive structuring and obedience toward authority

Abstract For decades the classic Milgram studies have inspired psychologists to seek individual differences that impact the level of obedience to authority. In this article the authors propose a procedure in which obedience is examined in virtual reality, and they posit the hypothesis that an interaction of several factors determines obedience. The first is the match (or lack thereof) of the participant's and the learner's sex; the second is need for cognitive closure. Analysis of the result for the dichotomic variable (total obedience vs absence of total obedience) as well as the intervallic variable (level of obedience: from total absence to absolute) demonstrated that high level of need for closure influences obedience only in conditions where the participant and the learner are of the same sex. In addition, this effect was stronger for males than for females.