Psychologists Have Uncovered a Troubling Feature of People Who Seem Nice All the Time

[EscapingProgress]

http://mic.com/articles/92479/psychologists-have-uncovered-a-troubling-feature-of-people-who-seem-too-nice

 

"In 1961, curious about a person's willingness to obey an authority figure, social psychologist Stanley Milgram began trials on his now-famous experiment. In it, he tested how far a subject would go electrically shocking a stranger (actually an actor faking the pain) simply because they were following orders. Some subjects, Milgram found, would follow directives until the person was dead.

 

A new Milgram-like experiment published this month in the Journal of Personality has taken this idea to the next step by trying to understand which kinds of people are more or less willing to obey these kinds of orders. What researchers discovered was surprising: Those who are described as "agreeable, conscientious personalities" are more likely to follow orders and deliver electric shocks that they believe can harm innocent people, while "more contrarian, less agreeable personalities" are more likely to refuse to hurt others."

[J-William]

I think this was the entire basis of the show House. He was willing to break rules, noses and piss off people in order to save lives. Doesn't seem different in terms of hurting people. 

 

I'm sure that Adolf Eichmann was a perfectly agreeable gentleman, and he took part in killing millions.

 

Of course. It's the less agreeable people who are willing to disagree with a powerful people and groups. I mean Socrates wasn't terribly agreeable, and many people find Stef downright disagreeable.

[Slavik]

Agreeable as in conforming to proposed ethics (as in ethics not based on anything, or contradictory) ?  Well I can imagine such peoples childhoods, where arbitrary rules were forced on them, and disagreements punished.  I now very much so "conform" to logic and evidence, well at least I strive to.  I dont think its "agreeable" trait that is the problem, but  rather the absence of universal rules.