Intro A real example of how social norms and roles shape people's behavior is that of the African genocide in Rwanda which caused thousands of deaths due of obedience. The genocide in Rwanda could be comparable to the Holocaust atrocities of Nazi Germany which forced Milgram to conduct an experiment on obedience to authority (Milgram, 1963). Social roles and norms basically provide an explanation of how people's behavior is greatly influenced. The essay gives an account of Milgram's experiment on obedience to authority. It also outlines how social norms and roles shape people's behavior with illustrations of how certain factors such as agent change, settings, authority, and commitment can influence people. Milgram explains that individuals operate on two levels such as the autonomous state and the agent state. People transition to agency if they know they are not responsible for the results of their actions, even if it involves killing or harming individuals. For example, when the experimenter made it clear who was responsible for what happened to the students, the teachers continued to administer the shocks for reasons of conflation of responsibility. (Myers, Abel and Sani). According to Milgram, one of his participants explains that the reason he continued was because the experimenter was entirely responsible. (Milgram, Obedience to Authority. ,However, social norms and social roles have a great influence on how behavior can be shaped. It is from these influences that people tend to judge what behavior is acceptable or unacceptable. Milgram's experiments on obedience provides scholars with an understanding of how individuals obey in certain situations and contexts. Milgram states four different types of factors in which people obey authority because they are bound by orders given to them by people who are superior to them. This means that the consequences of the outcome are not their responsibility. The second factor of authority explains that the level of obedience is effective if the leader is close to the subordinates orders were given over the telephone. This implies that proximity to authority translates into effectiveness and efficiency in carrying out assigned tasks. The third factor which is commitment, the participants did the task because they knew they had a commitment to complete because they were paid. Finally, contexts show the rate of obedience levels, meaning that outcome outcomes can be influenced whether the context is natural or