9 Reasons Why People Obey Without Question
These are nine reasons why people obey without question. There are psychological and social pressures that make people compliant.
There are many reasons why people decide to obey unquestionably. You can read about the first six societal pressures in the post below. There are psychological, social, and internal influences that make people compliant.
Psychological Pressures
Psychology plays a role in obedience. These are three everyday psychological pressures that make people obey.
Agentic State
The Agentic State is when you allow other people to direct your behaviors and then pass on the responsibility for your behavior to the person who gave you the orders. The most famous example is the Milgram Experiment which was made famous by Stanley Milgram.
People will most often blindly obey someone merely because they are wearing a white coat, hold a fancy title, or are in an authority position. The Milgram Experiment proved this to be the case. People blame those who order them to do something rather than accept responsibility for their actions. This is the “I was just following orders” excuse.
Helper Syndrome
Helper syndrome is the “feeling of being needed and having to sacrifice and give up is a central part of the helper syndrome.” You always make personal sacrifices for yourself or the benefit of society. Someone with helper syndrome will ignore their need to help others, even if it negatively affects them. Someone with helper syndrome will often be dependent on dependent on others. Someone who suffers from helper syndrome will even refuse to help oneself.
A person with helper syndrome often has low self-esteem, meaning they will obey, and this is because they lack the self-confidence to stand up for themselves.
Intelligent Disobedience
The more ignorant you are more likely you are to obey without thinking. This is because you will not look into the rules or problems further than you are told. When you educate yourself, you can review regulations, laws, and policies and arrive at your own conclusions.
Intelligent disobedience is when you learn about a problem and disobey to attempt to resolve the issue. The Internet has made a wide range of information available to people to learn about issues. People can reach their conclusions about a topic or problem with that information. People can become a part of a group or movement that is working to correct a wrong or a societal problem.
Civil disobedience against a government law or policy has happened throughout history, from Gandhi to Martin Luther King Jr to the Women’s Rights Movement.
Social Pressures
Many aspects of social settings can make people compliant. These are four everyday pressures that you experience when you are around others.
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is a common problem for many people. It is especially problematic for younger people who want to join the cool kids’ group. People want to be accepted by others, and many enjoy being part of a group.
You are among other students, so you feel the pressure to be like the other students or to do better than other students in specific ways to impress someone. You conform to the other students because you fear being an outcast. You are scared to question ideas or do things that will prevent you from being accepted by your fellow students.
Some people require being accepted by others or want to be popular. Those people will succumb to social pressure to join the group.
Social Conformity
On a larger scale is the problem with social conformity. This is peer pressure on a societal scale. You want to conform to whatever is popular, or the mainstream is presenting to you. It could be ideas or the latest cool gadget that everyone wants.
You may go along with specific ideas presented as popular at the time. You don’t want to be a social outcast when you meet people at events you attend. The thoughts and beliefs are messaged as being what most people believe. You will comply with these ideas to fit in with people in society.
Consumerism can also play a role in social conformity. People will watch the latest show streaming on Netflix or Amazon Prime that everyone is talking about. People like buying the latest iPhone or the largest television to show off to friends and family. This also happens in fashion, where people want to keep up with the latest trends. They will buy the newest dress, jeans, swimsuit, or fashion accessories to think they are a trendsetter. This is another show of social conformity, but in the wanting to keep up the Joneses and Kardashians way. You then get to be the person with the latest gadget until it becomes outdated in a year, and the new product is out. Some people will then buy the latest version to be viewed as trendy.
Want To Get Along With Everyone
Some people think that they can get along with everyone. They will do whatever it takes to get along with someone, even with someone they disagree with. These people compromise because they want people to think they are nice and not get into arguments or other things that society looks down on.
People Pleasing
Most people want to be seen in a positive light by others. To do this, they think they must always please others. They will please people who they do not even know, and they will talk nicely about someone. Their main goal is to charm people for no reason. People pleasers often suffer from being overly friendly and unable to stand up for themselves. That comes from lacking self-esteem and self-confidence.
Internal Pressures
You may not correctly manage yourself, which allows you to succumb to obeying others. These are two typical internal pressures that can lead you to be compliant.
External Validation
You may receive your validation from other people instead of from yourself. This is common because society wrongly brainwashes people to think self-interest is terrible. When you get your validation from others, you likely are overly helpful, a people pleaser, and believe you must get along with everyone.
Low Self-Confidence
You experience low self-confidence. When you lack self-confidence, you won’t be sure of yourself. You will allow others to tell you what to do. You will do as you are told and obey because you do not believe in yourself.
Self-confidence is critical to development because it can help in others areas of life, but many people never develop it. Once you are confident, you can go on to achieve your goals.
Think for yourself—question authority. Thrive as a single person.
Become a secure single.