The Power of the situation

United States, 1989

Film
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Episode number 19 of Series “Discovering psychology”.
This program looks at the ways in which people are influenced by leaders, groups and society - at social psychology. Psychological experiments by Lewin and Milgram, inspired by the extreme cruelty of the Nazi regime, suggest that, given the same circumstances, a powerful leader, peer group pressure, an extraordinary situation, everyone is capable of the same extremes of good or evil behaviour. Once the situation no longer exists we return to our “normal” selves. Archival film of these experiments is included.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

co-producer

David Espar

Tuggelin Yourgrau

production company

WGBH (Boston)

Duration

00:28:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1989

Appears in

Discovering psychology

Group of items

Discovering psychology

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Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

325232

Language

English

Subject categories

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Obedience

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Social influence

Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Religion & Sociology → Social psychology

Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Obedience

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Obedience

Food, Health, Lifestyle, Medicine, Psychology & Safety → Social psychology

Short films

Short films → Short films - United States

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/81972--the-power-of-the-situation/ |title=The Power of the situation |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=18 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}