Obedience as a function of Western Culture

An interesting article on K5 regarding the Milgram experiments, where participants were put in to the role of "teachers" and then told to administer strong electric shocks to "students" when they answered questions incorrectly. Profound description of an misunderstood part of Western society- namely that personal ethics are generally pushed aside in favor of "following orders".

"A religious person who has been brought up to defer to authority is more likely to obey than an atheist. When Milgram's study was duplicated in West Germany, where the population is not as religious , the rates of obedience were just over fifty percent. Essentially, the people in the Milgram and Milgram-inspired studies were not being cruel because they wished to. They were attempting to conform to the norms of Western culture."