Influence of authoritarianism,vagal tone and mental fatigue on obedience to authority |
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Authors: | Johan Lepage Laurent Bègue Oulmann Zerhouni Rémi Courset Martial Mermillod |
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Affiliation: | 1. Laboratoire InterUniversitaire de Psychologie, Département de psychologie, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France;2. Laboratoire Parisien de Psychologie Sociale, Département de psychologie, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, Nanterre, France;3. Laboratoire de Psychologie et Neurocognition, CNRS UMR 5105, Département de psychologie, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France;4. Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France |
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Abstract: | Recent research suggests that obedience in the Milgram paradigm is underpinned by stress vulnerability and inhibitory control over pain sharing. Because self-regulatory fatigue (SRF) induction is a suited method to investigate the influence of inhibitory control on behaviour, participants (n?=?99) were randomly assigned to a High vs. Low self-regulatory condition. Heart rate variability (HRV, a biomarker of stress vulnerability) was collected during 5-min baseline and continuously during the experimental procedure. Prior to the experiment, participants completed an online survey assessing right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), a well-known predictor of obedience. Using the Immersive Video Milgram Obedience Experiment, we found (i) that lower resting HRV predicted higher destructive obedience, (ii) that low self-regulatory inhibition (induced by fatigue) reduced destructive obedience, (iii) that the well-established influence of RWA on destructive obedience was suppressed in the presence of SRF. Implications for future directions in obedience research are discussed. |
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Keywords: | Obedience to authority right-wing authoritarianism mental fatigue vagal tone inhibitory control |
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