The Issue: This chapter is about the power of authority figures and how everyday (non-sadistic) people can be persuaded into obeying an authority’s dictations regardless of cruelty inflicted onto others, or the sense behind an action.
Major Strength: Cialdini explains the power of authority and gives many examples of this phenomenon. I like how Cialdini not only gives psychology experiments are examples, but also real life examples. For instance, he talked about his professor friend who talked to people whenever he traveled. Once the professor friend informed the people that he was a professor they instantly changed their speech and became dull and more grammatically correct just because of his title and assumed authority status. I also found it fascinating that people tend to seem taller just because of their status or title.
Major Weakness: Cialdini starts off with a dramatized explanation of Milgram’s shock experiment. Although I was familiar with this experiment before, I was confused about the purpose of his dramatization. I think if people were not familiar with the experiment the start of this chapter would have caused further confusion. It seems unnecessary to place the participant as the shock receiver. I don’t think it really had an educational value.
Underlying Assumptions: Cialdini helps us prepare for con artists. We’re informed to not just trust a person by their attire and title, that there can be a different meaning to their appearance. Also, to not be intimidated by a higher authority and to go with gut feelings sometimes cause even though a doctor may think he knows what he’s doing – if you think otherwise you should check instead of blindly complying.
Questions: Should we always question authority? How do we prevent ourselves from blindly complying with authority without over questioning every authorities move? How do we teach children to grow up to not always judge people’s credibility by appearance without inadvertently teaching them to disobey their teachers, doctors or other legitimate authority figures? We teach children to not judge a book by it’s cover, but somehow we still judge people wearing suits or driving a nice car differently than those with an average car.