“I would Never Fall for That”: The Use of an Illegitimate Authority to Teach Social Psychological Principles

Abstract

The current class activity explores attitudinal beliefs and behavioral responses of “obedience” in response to an illegitimate authority figure in an ambiguous situation. Students either self-reported the likelihood that they would comply to a request made by a stranger to surrender their cell phone, or were asked directly and in person by a confederate to relinquish their cell phone. The exercise revealed a marked discrepancy between how students predicted they would respond and how they actually did respond to the request. Specifically, in five different classes, the average percentage of students in the class complying with the request was 81.2%. In this poster, we provide recommendations for how this exercise might be employed to make meaningful applications to myriad social psychological principles.