Fear Is The Main Cause Of Obedience

Fear is the main cause of action when an authority figure gives you orders to do something you know isn’t right. What is obedience? Saul Mcleod defines obedience as, “A form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way.” What causes these people to be obedient and do other people's bidding? Is it fear? Is it respect? Or, is there an alternative motive that we do not fully understand yet

I think that in the workplace people follow directions and orders because they are scared. They have a fear of being fired so they do things they do not want to do. I think the same was true for the Germans. They were scared that if they did not do what they were told, one of their family members would be killed or they themself would be killed. The fear of losing someone motivated them to do something they knew was wrong until they were desensitized to it.
In Germany during the holocaust, times were very hard. The economy was bad and Germany was at war. People were scared so they did whatever Hitler told them