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Authority

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Abstract

The 1963 Milgram experiment at Yale University shocked the world. It showed how people readily yield to authority in the most frightening of ways. The experiment was simple. A participant sat at a table affixed with a microphone and a large control panel. The participant read aloud from a list of prepared questions. Behind a nearby screen sat another person who answered. If the respondent answered correctly, the experiment advanced to the next question. If the respondent answered incorrectly, the participant flipped one of the 30 switches on the control panel, thereby delivering a painful electric shock to the person sitting behind the curtain.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “PsycNET.” American Psychological Association. Accessed June 08, 2018. http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1964-03472-001 .

  2. 2.

    Tierney, John. “Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?” The New York Times. August 17, 2011. Accessed June 21, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/magazine/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html .

  3. 3.

    Soegaard, Mads. “Hick’s Law: Making the Choice Easier for Users.” The Interaction Design Foundation. February 2018. Accessed June 08, 2018. https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/hick-s-law-making-the-choice-easier-for-users .

  4. 4.

    Customer Information Checkout. Digital image. Hot Sauce Market. Accessed June 7, 2018. https://hotsauce.market/ .

  5. 5.

    Baumeister, Roy F . “Where Has Your Willpower Gone?” New Scientist 213, no. 2849 (2012): 30-31. doi:10.1016/s0262-4079(12)60232-2.

  6. 6.

    Engber, Daniel. “A Whole Field of Psychology Research May Be Bunk. Scientists Should Be Terrified.” Slate Magazine, Slate, 6 Mar. 2016, www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/cover_story/2016/03/ego_depletion_an_influential_theory_in_psychology_may_have_just_been_debunked.html .

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© 2018 Edward Stull

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Stull, E. (2018). Authority. In: UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-3811-0_22

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