Obedience under normative conflict: a postconventional agency model of Milgram's experiment

Abstract

We model normative behavior when there is normative conflict between an agent and her context. We extended the postconventional agency model, in which norm-guided behavior may depend on context and incentives, by endowing the agent with self-estcem and the capacity to attribute pretige. When there is normative conflict these variables ponder the agent’s dispositions against the situations’s imperatives. To fix ideas we model Milgram’s experiments on obedience, which have been a focus of debate on the strength of normative bahevior in the face of the power of the situation. The model’s results reproduce the various behaviors observed experimentally, and support an interactionist perspective. The model can be used for microeconomic institutional analysis.