Obedience (human behavior) Fields of Study Obedience, in human
behavior, is a form of "social influence in which a person
yields to explicit instructions or orders from an authority
figure" Obedience is generally distinguished from compliance,
which is behavior influenced by peers, and from conformity,
which is behavior intended to match that of the majority.
Obedience can be seen as both a sin and a virtue. For example in
a situation when one orders a person to kill another innocent
person and he or she does this willingly, it is generally
considered to be a sin. However when one orders a person to kill
an enemy who will end a lot of innocent lives and he or she does
this willingly it can be deemed a virtue. Humans have been shown
to be surprisingly obedient in the presence of perceived
legitimate authority figures, as shown by the Milgram experiment
in the 1960s, which was carried-out by Stanley Milgram to find
how the Nazis managed to get ordinary people to take part in the
mass murders of the Holocaust. T