For those who suffered.
In hope of a better world.
The roots of evil
ERVIN STAUB is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has conducted extensive research and published many articles on helping, altruism, values, aggression, and motivation. He is author of the two-volume work, Positive Social Behavior and Morality. In 1990, Professor Staub was awarded the Intercultural and International Relations Prize of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (a division of the American Psychological Association).
The roots of evil
The origins of genocide and other group violence
ERVIN STAUB
University of Massachusetts at Amherst
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Cambridge University Press
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© Cambridge University Press 1989
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First published 1989
20th printing 2009
Printed in the United States of America
A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-521-42214-7 paperback
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Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Part I Psychological and cultural bases of genocide and other forms of group violence
1 An introduction
The approach and content of the book
A brief preview
• Differences and similarities and the selection of cases
The definitions of genocide and mass killing
Four mass killings/genocides
The Holocaust
• The genocide of the Armenians
• The autogenocide (Khmer killing Khmer) in Cambodia
• The disappearances in Argentina
• Is mass killing ever justified?
2 The origins of genocide and mass killing: core concepts
A conception of the origins of genocide and mass killing
Difficult life conditions
• Psychological consequences: needs and goals
• Ways of coping and fulfilling needs and goals
• The continuum of destruction
• Cultural-societal characteristics
• The role of bystanders
• The role of motivation
Leadership and followership
The individual and the system
The roots of evil
Groups as evil or good
Comparison of personal (and social) goal theory and other approaches
Compartmentalization of functions and euphemistic language
• Obedience to authority and the authoritarianism of culture
• Psychosocial consequences of World War I on German youth
• Anti-Semitism in Germany
• The role of the family
• Hitler’s personality and psychopathology
• The role of victims
• Complex analyses of the origins of the Holocaust
• Some further comparisons
Summary: a conception of motivation and evolution
3 The psychology of hard times: the effects of difficult life conditions
Motivations arising from threat, frustration, or difficult life conditions
Motivational sources of human behavior
• Motivations for aggression: psychological states and processes that promote aggression
• Difficult life conditions and aggression
The effect of stress and danger on psychological experience
The long-term effects of combat experience
Strategies for coping and goal satisfaction
4 Cultural and individual characteristics
The influence of culture
Aggressiveness as a persistent behavioral mode
• Cultural self-concept, self-esteem, and world view
• Cultural goals and values
• Moral value orientations
• Ingroup-outgroup differentiation and devaluation of outgroups
• Pluralistic and monolithic cultures
• Orientation to authority
• Unconscious motivation – individual and cultural
The influence of sociopolitical organization
Governmental system
• Social institutions
5 The psychology of perpetrators: individuals and groups
Roles and other social processes as origins of harm-doing
Self-selection and the personality of perpetrators
The potentially antisocial person
• Family origins of the potentially antisocial personality
• Authority orientation and its sources in the family
The origins of destructiveness in personality and in the situation
The fanatic as perpetrator
Behavior in groups
The subcultures of perpetrators
• Psychological functioning and individual responsibility
6 Steps along a continuum of destruction: perpetrators and bystanders
Just-world thinking
Learning by doing and the evolution of extreme destructiveness
Compartmentalization and integration
Other origins of mistreatment
The role and power of bystanders
Part II The Nazi Holocaust
7 Hitler comes to power
Genocide and “insanity”
Life conditions: loss of war, the Treaty of Versailles, and economic and political chaos
The guiding motive for the Holocaust: ideology
Reasons for Hitler’s appeal: a summary
8 Preconditions for the Holocaust in German culture
The devaluation of Jews
Self-concept, self-esteem, and national goals
The Germans as a superior people
Respect for and obedience to authority
The influence of Nietzsche
Rationality versus sentimental romanticism
The psychological effects on German youth of World War I and the postwar period
Youth groups and military groups after World War I
9 Nazi rule and steps along the continuum of destruction
Increasing mistreatment of Jews
The evolution of ideas, actions, and the system: euthanasia and genocide
The power of giving onself over to a group, an ideal, or a leader
The role of the totalitarian system
10 The SS and the psychology of perpetrators
The creation, evolution, and role of the SS
Characteristics of SS members
Learning by participation
The interweaving and merging of role and person
The extermination camps: Auschwitz
The psychology of perpetrators: individuals and the system
The characteristics and functioning of perpetrators
• Behavioral shifts
Moral equilibration, choice, and responsibility
Individual responsibility
The completion tendency: killing till the very end
11 The behavior and psychology of bystanders and victims
The role of bystanders
The passivity of German bystanders
• Bystanders and perpetrators in Nazi Europe
• The passivity of the outside world
Jewish cooperation, resistance, and psychological experience
The Jewish councils
• Jewish actions
• The psychology of victims
The power of heroic bystanders
Heroic rescuers
Part III Other genocides and mass killings
12 The Turkish genocide of the Armenians
Historical (life) conditions
Cultural preconditions
The devaluation of minorities and Christians
• Orientation to authority
Steps along the continuum of destruction
Devaluation and increasing mistreatment
Armenian “provocation”
The evolution of Young Turk ideology
The machinery of destruction
The genocide
The role of bystanders
13 Cambodia: genocide to create a better world
Historical (life) conditions
Cambodian peasants: economic conditions, uprising, reprisals
• Political instability and violence
The Khmer Rouge rule and “autogenocide”
Ideological bias and reports and views of atrocities
Ideology, world view, and the aims of the Khmer Rouge
Cultural preconditions: the roots of ideology and genocide
Class divisions, urban-rural rift, and slavery
• Orientation to authority
• The ideology of antagonism toward Vietnam
• Cultural self-concept
• A tradition of violence in Cambodia
Experiential and intellectual sources of ideology and fanaticism
Gaining followers: the tools of revolution and genocide
The role of specific individuals
Steps along the continuum of destruction
The role
