Naziism & Holocaust

Eichmann in Jerusalem

Obedience to Authority

Stanford Prison Experiment

Sanctioned Massacres

Anti-Semitism

• Christian: Jews as killers of God

agents of Satan / killers of babies

money-lenders• Nazi: communist conspiracy

conspiracy of financiers

biological race theory: parasites

bacteria

vermin

Psychology’s Response to Fascism

• Obedience -- Milgram & others

• Authoritarianism -- Adorno et al &

others

Nazi-ism:Leader Principle & Prejudice

Authoritarian Personality (T. Adorno et al)

Obedience to Authority (S. Milgram)

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Eichmann

Eichmann in Jerusalem

• Anti-Semitic?

• Authoritarian?

• Personality change?

• Conscience?

• “Banality of Evil”?

Einsatzgruppen

“Mobile Killing Units”

My Lai

MY LAI MASSACRE: MARCH 16, 1968

Lt. Calley

• “I was ordered by Capt. Medina to kill everybody.”

• Sentenced to life in prison (released in 1974)

Einsatzgruppen

“Mobile Killing Units”

My Lai

MY LAI MASSACRE: MARCH 16, 1968

Lt. Calley

• “I was ordered by Capt. Medina to kill everybody.”

• Sentenced to life in prison (released in 1974)

Milgram Obedience Experiment

• Subject: plays “teacher” role

• Confederate: plays “learner” role

• Confederate: plays “experimenter” role

Milgram Obedience Experiment

• Series of experiments:

Indep. variables: proximity of authority

salience of victim

group admin of shock

Dep. Variable: shock level

Results from main

variations

Results from main variations

Factors increasing obedience:

• Authority of experimenter

• Proximity of experimenter

• Distance form victim

• Absence of dissenters

• Presence of other compliers

• Reduced role in giving shock

• Authority of institution

Stanford Prison Experiment

Phil Zimbardo

Abu Gharaib

Zimbardo Prison Experiment

• Random assignment of prisoners & guards

• 5 released – “extreme emotional depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety”

• Ended after 6 days

Zimbardo Prison Experiment

• Guards found “sense of power was exhilarating”

• Prisoner responses:– Disbelief, confusion, disorientation– Rebellion– Isolation, self-interest, deprecation– Half became “sick”

Zimbardo: Prisoner Responses

• Loss of personal identity– “Deindividuation”

• Learned helplessness

• Emasculation

Power of role

Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment

• Impact of role(s) within authority system:

– Undermining of old identity

– Building of new identity

Sanctioned Massacres

Crimes of ObedienceHerb Kelman

V. Lee Hamilton

Sanctioned MassacresKelman & Hamilton

• Authorization

• Routinization

• De-individuation of actor

• De-humanization of victims

Sanctioned Massacres

• Authorization: authority situation– relieves individual of moral responsibility– calls into play morality of loyalty & duty

• Routinization: role in organization– task becomes a job– violence broken into tasks– language of euphamisms

Sanctioned Massacres

• De-individuation of the actor– individual takes on identity of organization– de-emphasize personal characteristics

• De-humanization of the victims– victims given group identity– victims portrayed as non-human– Deprived of membership in common human

group

Sanctioned Massacres

• Killers & torturers can be made

• Tearing-down & re-construction of identity– separation– “liminal” phase of instruction, rehearsal &

testing– return in new status

Hugh Thompson

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