A closer look
Slapping a white lab coat on a complete stranger and giving them a clipboard is all it takes to convince most people to inflict lethal electrical shocks on their peers. Authority bias is the tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure and be more influenced by that opinion, regardless of how completely unhinged their demands might actually be. The famous Milgram experiments terrifyingly proved that ordinary, well-meaning citizens will eagerly override their own deeply held moral convictions if a guy who looks like a scientist politely tells them that the experiment must continue. We are socially conditioned from birth to blindly obey titles, uniforms, and confident postures, rendering us remarkably susceptible to horrific manipulation. It is highly probable that your moral compass is completely entirely dependent on whether or not the person asking you to do something evil is wearing a nice tie!
