The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence

a group – the shared meanings. Specific aspects of culture are shared rules, norms, values, customs, and life-styles. Culture is coded, maintained, and expressed in the “products” of a group: its literature, art, rituals, the contents of its mass media, and the behavior of its members. A result of shared culture is similarity in psychological reactions to culturally relevant events. Society, as I use the term, means the institutions and organizations of the group. These express the culture, embodying shared meanings that guide the life of the group. Thus, while devaluation of a group is a cultural characteristic, discrimination is embodied in social institutions such as schools or a military that segregates members of a group or uses them only for labor and does not give them weapons (as was the case with the Armenians in Turkey before the genocide). Society also includes political organizations and institutions. Occasionally culture and social organization can be discrepant, as when a repressive dictatorial system emerges in a democratic culture. But a truly great discrepancy of this kind is probably rare. In both Germany and the Soviet Union, the two great totalitarian states, the culture supported authoritarian rule or at least made it acceptable.

^b I will use several motivational concepts, some in part interchangeably. Motivation designates an active psychological state that makes an outcome or end desirable, whether eating to diminish hunger or killing to feel powerful or avenge real or imagined harm. A motive is a characteristic of the individual or culture out of which active motivation arises. There are different kinds of motives. Needs are more intense and have a more imperative quality. They push an organism to action, either because they are required for survival or because they are essential to the wholeness and functioning of an individual or culture. Goals have desired outcomes that are self-enhancing and are sources of satisfaction. The more deeply a goal (acquisition of wealth, writing a great book, making a contribution to humanity) comes to be an important aspect of self-definition, the more imperative it becomes. Essential, unfilled goals thus become needlike in character. I will sometimes use the word aim to designate the outcomes that individuals desire as a result of the active motivation arising from their needs and characteristic (personal) goals.

Frustration is an emotion that results from interference with fulfilling a motive or from the failure to fulfill it. The emotional consequences are greater when the motive is more important. Difficult life conditions often frustrate basic goals, and needs.

^c In 1985, during the trials of the Argentine military leaders for their role in the disappearances, many voices expressed dismay about the silence in Argentina at the time of the disappearances – a silence that expressed not just fear but acceptance.

3 The psychology of hard times: the effects of difficult life conditions

Psychologists have identified two primary conditions that instigate aggression: (1) frustration, which results from interference with goal-directed behavior or the failure to fulfill goals, and (2) attack on or threat to life, material well-being, or self-concept and self-esteem.¹ Other conditions have also been shown to increase aggression: heat, noise, crowding, the general level of arousal, and specifically sexual arousal.² These conditions and bodily states are most likely to intensify aggression if an inclination for it already exists because of prior frustration or attack or for other reasons. It is noteworthy that at least some of the physical conditions, such as crowding, and some of the bodily states, such as arousal due to stress, can be the result of difficult life conditions.³

Why do certain conditions make aggression probable? According to the sociobiologist E. O. Wilson, human beings have a genetic predisposition to respond aggressively when their survival and thereby the transmission of their genes are threatened.⁴ Although no particular mode of aggression is genetically based, the probability increases that some aggressive response will result. Whereas a genetic potential for aggression obviously exists and probably a genetic predisposition as well, the great individual and group variation in aggressiveness suggests that environment and experience are more important.⁵ In humans, feeling threatened is a psychological experience that results from the way events are construed. The meaning given to events by people can be partly based on their objective nature (e.g., lions attack, fires burn) but is mostly based on past experience, world views, personality, and views handed down by society. Research showing the relationship of aggression to parental socialization and family experience (see Chapter 4) supports this view.

In the psychological laboratory frustration and attack are normally limited in magnitude and duration and involve no real threat to survival.⁶ Under these conditions instigation, particularly frustration, has less potency. Intense, persistent frustration of goals and expectations resulting from difficult conditions of life can be expected to have greater impact.

In psychological experiments, an aggressive response to instigation is most likely when (1) the subject is physically attacked, that is, pain is inflicted, usually by electric shocks; and (2) the subject’s self-concept, self-esteem, or social image is threatened. Insult, verbal abuse, and criticism give rise to anger and aggression. Aggression is more likely when the actions of a frustrator seem to arise out of ill-will. Frustrating people by apparent carelessness or stupidity induces less aggression than frustrating them arbitrarily, presumably with a desire to harm.⁷ It is in the latter case that victims can expect future attacks and self-defense is essential.

Motivations arising from threat, frustration, or difficult life conditions

Motives due to threat, frustration, or difficult life conditions depend both on the nature of instigation and the characteristics of individuals (and cultures). Are certain of these motives better served by aggression than by other means?

Motivational sources of human behavior

According to my theory of personal goals, there are four major sources of motivation.⁸ First, in the course of their lives, people develop personal goals, desires that they want to fulfill, outcomes that they want to produce. Groups of outcomes that satisfy the desires – for example, for achievement, approval, or friendship – define personal goals. In most cases a “network of cognitions” –