Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows the instructions, commands, or demands of another person who is perceived to have legitimate authority. It is an important concept in social psychology because human behaviour is strongly influenced by social situations, authority figures, group expectations, and institutional rules. Obedience differs from conformity because conformity involves adjusting behaviour to match a group, whereas obedience specifically involves responding to an authority figure. Obedience can be observed in everyday life in families, schools, workplaces, military organisations, and government institutions. People generally learn from childhood that certain authorities have the right to give instructions. Parents, teachers, supervisors, police officers, and other officials may therefore influence behaviour through their legitimate authority. Obedience can be beneficial because social institutions depend upon people following reasonable rules and instructions. For example, obeying traffic regulations, following safety procedures, and complying with emergency instructions can protect individuals and society. A major contribution to the psychological study of obedience was made by Stanley Milgram. In his famous experiments, participants were instructed by an experimenter to administer increasingly severe electric shocks to another person whenever that person