Why We Follow Orders: The Neuroscience of Com...

Would World War II have happened without Hitler? Would someone else have built Apple without Steve Jobs? Jared Diamond joins Michael Shermer to ask how much history depends on particular people. From Darwin's discoveries to the rise of Christianity, Diamond considers when someone ...  Show more

How did 19 hijackers evade the world's most advanced intelligence apparatus despite years of warnings? Twenty-five years after 9/11, journalist Gerald Posner joins Michael Shermer to explain the security failures that left America vulnerable. Those failures, compounded by governm ...  Show more

This is the FIFTH episode in a six-part series on "The Science of Success" titled WEAPONS of INFLUENCE and based on the best selling book “Influence” by Robert Cialdini. Each of these weapons of influence are deeply rooted and verified by experimental psychology research (which y ...  Show more

Explore classic social influence psychology experiments that reveal why we conform, obey authority, and how the bystander effect works in everyday life. 

What would you have done? It's one of the most enduring questions in psychology. We all like to think that in a moment of crisis, we'd rise to the occasion and show courage. And yet many of us have had experiences where we followed orders and did what we were told to do ...

Stanford University neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky talks about human behavior, the penal system and the question of free will. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices