"Compliance" to Authority

[Sigmund]

Hi, Everybody!

There is a movie coming out soon titled, "Compliance. It's based on true events.

Bottom line it shows how many people will do unimaginable things to comply with authority.

The strip search prank call scam was a series of incidents occurring for roughly a decade.... These incidents involved a man calling a restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant) or grocery store (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store), claiming to be a police (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police) detective (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detective), and convincing managers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management) to conduct strip searches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search) of female employees or perform other unusual acts on behalf of the police. The calls were usually placed to fast-food restaurants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast-food_restaurant) in small rural towns.


Over 70 such occurrences were reported in 30 U.S. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._state),...

(Full Wikipedia article- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam)

The incident portrayed in the movie occurred in Mount Washington, Kentucky at a McDonald's. The *police detective* called and managed to convinced the female supervisor to call in the accused young woman, frisk her, and even did a strip search. When The manager told the supposed police detective she had to get to work he convinced her to call someone she trusted to guard the naked young woman. The manager called her fiance to come watch the young woman. The police detective convinced the man to have the girl do jumping jacks (naked), do a body cavity search and perform a sexual act.

All done by what one would assume to be average, every day people. Complying with an authority figure.

I thought it was fascinating. ( I was captivated by The Milgram Experiment, as well.)

Thoughts, opinions, comments?

Thank You!

Peace.

[PatInTheHat]

"Compliance to Authority"

:eek2:
:umm:
Hmmmm....hmmmmmmmmmmmm :idea:..yyyyeaaaah good luck with that SN:rofl:RT !


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDcAOkvomBM
(I went to this Farm Aid concert by the way)

[staropeace]

Stanley Millgrim did a study of that years ago. We covered it in psychology. It was amazing how complying folks can be when faced with authority figures....especially when they are in uniform or even lab jackets. A lot of Natzis would say they were just following orders....and there is a grain of truth to this claim, human nature being what it is. I think the experiments concerning this human behavior were called Theories of obedience...or some such thing...I forget alot of that stuff lol.

[Todash]

Thanks to this thread, that song has been going through my head all morning.

[Shasta]

Already watched it. I would just watch the 20/20 or 60 minutes interview with the actual people involved. It's pretty much the same.

When I was getting my MBA I read about an experiment that was done at a college. They created a fake jail and locked up some students and had other students act as guards. The guards were told to be mean. After a while they were SO mean the experiment had to be shut down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

Or, watch the show The Colony. The third season never aired because people were SO convinced that they were in a life or death situation that one of the cast members died protecting their "colony."

It's amazing what the mind can do. Truly, the only thing that makes us better than animals is a well developed set of social standards. And even sometimes I wonder.....

[GNTLGNT]

...compliance should never over-rule common sense...

[Todash]

There are people, though, who don't. You can't talk *everyone* into violating their consciences. Just most people.

[Autumn Gust]

My husband and I taught our kids to always question authority (including ours) whenever they spotted a flaw in the logic. When they were little I designed our family logo. I'm too computer illiterate to reproduce it here, but it was of an amoeba inside of a circle with a line crossing it. (Think of the Ghostbusters logo.) It basically meant, "Don't be a sheep (or an amoeba!) and just follow the crowd. Think for yourself at all times." It hung on our refrigerator for at least a decade.

[Shasta]

My husband and I taught our kids to always question authority (including ours) whenever they spotted a flaw in the logic.

My dad did the same. It drives him nuts now but it's one of my favorite things he taught me.

[Ebdim9th]

My dad taught me about flawed logic around the statement "a gypsy stole, therefore all gypsies steal" ...
If I were a restaurant manager, having a liability sort of authority myself, I would ask for his badge number, call-back number, and the precinct he works out of so that I can hang up, look it up in the phone book, call his superior, verify his case, and then get back to him.

[Shasta]

My dad taught me about flawed logic around the statement "a gypsy stole, therefore all gypsies steal" ...
If I were a restaurant manager, having a liability sort of authority myself, I would ask for his badge number, call-back number, and the precinct he works out of so that I can hang up, look it up in the phone book, call his superior, verify his case, and then get back to him.

Or have someone else call since the guy wouldn't let her get off the phone.

[Sigmund]

Hi!

Thank you, all!

We raised our kids to listen, behave, be respectful and obey authority. Well, almost. Authority figures are usually people we can turn to and trust...usually. We taught the kids if an authority figure does something, asks you to do something that feels 'weird' or doesn't seem right, look for another adult that can intervene.
NO ONE should ever tell a child, "Don't tell your parents..." BIG RED FLAG!!!

Our kids (my son, nieces, nephews, Godchildren, baby cousins, etc.) have had a few times where they went against authority- one teacher refused to give one of the kids permission to go to the bathroom and rather than have an accident she got up and went to the bathroom. She came back sat at her desk and nothing came of it.

Peace.