<b>Authoritarian Drift in Times of Crisis: </b><b>Analysing the Psychological Susceptibility </b><b>to Right-Wing Extremism through the </b><b>Lens of the Milgram and Stanford Prison </b><b>Experiments</b>

Periods of acute economic, social, or financial crisis have often coincided with surges inauthoritarian and ultra-nationalist movements. This study examines whether classic socialpsychology experiments - Stanley Milgram’s <i>Obedience to Authority</i> (1961) and Philip Zimbardo’s<i>Stanford Prison Experiment</i> (1971) - offer empirical or theoretical support for the hypothesis thatindividuals become more prone to authoritarian or right-wing extremist ideologies under crisisconditions. We explore psychological mechanisms including obedience to authority, conformity,group polarisation, identity threat, and moral disengagement, and how they may facilitate the riseof populist, ultra-nationalist, or fascist movements, particularly in contemporary Europe. Adopting aqualitative, theory-integrative approach, we review key literature on authoritarianism and politicalextremism and compare insights from the Milgram and Stanford experiments with modern casestudies and survey findings.