Does following orders justify morally questionable actions? This question often arises in military and other strict hierarchical settings, where obedience can clash with personal values. Historically, this tension has been studied in soldiers, who are trained to act under extreme conditions. But what about everyday civilians? When faced with strict instructions we don't agree with, are we just as likely to let hierarchy override our moral compass?
A new study from the Centre for Research in Cognition and Neuroscience at the Université libre de Bruxelles, published in Cerebral Cortex, suggests we might be. Researchers examined how both civilians and military officer cadets responded to moral dilemmas under coercion, and the results were striking: A civilian's sense of agency dropped just as much as a soldier’s when following orders.
Where Decisions Are Made
Our sense of agency (SoA), the feeling of control over our actions, plays a key role in moral decision-making. SoA relies on a complex network of brain regions, including the frontal and parietal lobes and the cerebellum. These regions help us plan, assess with our senses, and carry out actions. Earlier studies have already demonstrated that when we follow orders, our SoA quiets down. That reduced activity leads to a lower sense of responsibility, even if the outcome is morally questionable.
While much of the research on obedience has focused on military settings, this new study set out to answer a broader question: Do civilians behave any differently when asked to carry out morally challenging tasks under orders?
Read More: Study Stresses the Importance of Recognizing Our Own Voice
Civilians Are Obedient, Too
To find out, researchers asked 19 military cadets and 24 civilians to make decisions about delivering mild electric shocks to another person. Sometimes they could choose freely; other times, they had to follow explicit orders. All of this happened while their brain activity was monitored using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
What they found confirmed what some may have suspected: Both groups showed the same decrease in SoA when following orders. This effect was measured through "temporal binding," a phenomenon where people perceive less time between their action and its consequence if they feel more responsible — so, less binding (more time between actions) means less perceived responsibility.
“In addition to confirming that the perception of being the author of our actions and their consequences decreases when we follow orders,” said study author Axel Cleeremans in a press release, “there were also no differences between military personnel and civilians, which suggests that everyday environments have minimal influence on the neural basis of moral decision-making, allowing the results to be generalized.”
The study also confirmed that several brain regions, like the frontal gyrus (planning), the precuneus (sensory integration), and the occipital lobe (visual processing), play consistent roles in shaping our sense of agency.
Understanding the Roots of Obedience
This research is part of a larger initiative, named "A neuroscience approach to investigating how hierarchy influences moral behavior." The findings offer insight not only into how we make moral choices, but also into how rules and authority in everyday life can subtly shape (even potentially override) our ethical instincts.
It’s worth noting that the military cadets tested in this study were officers trained to take responsibility for their actions. “One might wonder whether being a mere executant would influence these results,” Cleeremans added, “as a previous study showed that holding a low military rank had a detrimental effect on the SoA. This would suggest important avenues for responsibility training.”
In a world shaped by rules, routines, and hierarchies, understanding how and why we make moral decisions, especially under pressure, is more than a scientific concern — it’s a societal one.
Read More: In a World of Endless Choices, Why Is Decision-Making So Tiring?
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Cerebral Cortex: Neural correlates of the sense of agency in free and coerced moral decision-making among civilians and military personnel
Current Biology: Coercion Changes the Sense of Agency in the Human Brain
Having worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.
