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.
Our sense of agency (SoA), the feeling of control over our actions, plays a key role in moral decision-making. SoA relies on ...
