Adult authority figures can induce childlike submission in powerful professionals.
Evidence
Still, in Pete’s presence, Schlichtmann’s demeanor underwent a drastic change. He always spoke softly, in a meek and timorous voice, and he would quickly defer to Pete’s judgment in all matters. Alone, he could never bring himself to ask the banker for money. Quite the reverse, he always felt an unaccountable urge to give money to Uncle Pete. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 1140
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the earlier psychological material on how adult helplessness revives the demand for paternal authority. — connects to: Most normal people obey authority figures even to inflict harm — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 319; Adult social helplessness, not child biological helplessness, drives the demand for authority — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 609; Childhood conviction can collide with adult authority over a factual impossibility — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1666 (+17 more)
Broader Connections
- Learned family authority patterns shape how people respond to all authority
#expands(0.95) - Adult social helplessness, not child biological helplessness, drives the demand for authority
#qualifies(0.90) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 609 - Affect binds individuals to the power that subjects them.
#corroborates(0.90) — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 1153 - Childhood conviction can collide with adult authority over a factual impossibility
#complicates(0.85) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1666 - Authoritarian loyalty follows whoever was taught as legitimate authority in childhood
#complicates(0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 4281 - Mandated self-expression makes affective demands on Control-society workers
#complicates(0.85) — Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism, 84 - Power shifts attribution of actions from the subject to the power-holder
#complicates(0.80) - Empowering teacher authority rests on profound trust in people’s creative power
#contradicts(0.80) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 746 - Children imitate the powerful because holding power itself is reinforcing.
#complicates(0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1066 - Authority, reputation, and leadership are generalized motives for accepting influence
#complicates(0.75) - People are accountable when they will probably respond to legitimate authority.
#complicates(0.75) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1156 - Canonical authority can circulate through oral and popular channels
#complicates(0.75) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 639 - Duty-driven obedience, not personality, predicts cruelty under authority
#complicates(0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 434 - Authoritarianism strongly predicts endorsement of traditional sex roles.
#complicates(0.70) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 465 - Mothers can manipulate authority figures to ignore abuse.
#complicates(0.70) — Dave Pelzer, A Child Called ‘It’, 108