Synchrony and destructive obedience

Abstract

Studies demonstrated that cultural practices involving synchrony can make people more likely to engage in destructive obedience at the behest of authority figures. Participants instructed to follow a leader while walking in-step with him felt closer to him and were more willing to kill sow bugs at the leader's request in an ostensibly different experiment than were participants in other conditions. The findings are the first to indicate that synchronous activities may be used to influence leader–follower relations.