The people who participated in Stanley Milgram’s studies on obedience to authority did not know what awaited them. Unexpectedly, a person standing next to them exerted strong pressure on them to give another person increasingly powerful electric shocks. However, most people who become perpetrators voluntarily join groups that have inclinations they share. Even when a military engages in mass killing, it is unlikely that an average conscript will be called upon to act as a perpetrator; instead, officers select soldiers they judge best suited. In Argentina, conscripts were assigned to guard prisoners but were not called upon to act as torturers or killers.
The fanatic as perpetrator
The personalities of many would-be perpetrators and decision makers predispose them not necessarily to violence but to fanaticism, which in turn can eventually lead to mass killing or genocide. Fanatics are under the influence of a system of beliefs to which they subordinate everything else. They interpret and evaluate reality from the perspective of this system. Any means to fulfill the ideology’s overriding goals come to seem acceptable. Other goals, including the interests of the self, are subordinated to or served by working for the movement’s goals.
From others’ perspective their behavior may seem irrational and self-destructive. For example, Nazis would not use the blood of prisoners of war for transfusions, because some of them might be Jews who would “contaminate” German soliders.28 Other examples are the Khmer Rouge’s massacre of professional and educated people, destruction of industry, and attacks on militarily stronger Vietnam (see Part III), and suicide missions in the Middle East, particularly by Shiites.
The many psychohistorical books about Hitler focus on his pathological personality and its childhood origins. To understand Hitler, however, we must realize that his thoughts and feelings were codified in his ideology and turned into “ideals” and principles. Strong needs, fear or anxiety, and the inability to tolerate uncertainty are likely proclivities for fanaticism. Once personality and circumstances give rise to fanaticism, the commitment to a cause becomes a more immediate influence on behavior than personality.
The ideology usually has roots in the fanatics’ culture. This is evident in the case of the three most destructive ideologies that I examine: the Nazi ideology, that of the Pol Pot group, and Turkish ideology. Contemporary Shiite fanaticism also has cultural roots. The Shiites have been a minority for a long time, and assassination of majority leaders and extreme self-sacrifice for their group have characterized their history.29
There are two avenues to fanaticism. One is an emotional conversion experience. Substantial relief of physical symptoms can be achieved by intense group religious feelings, as in the miracle cures at Lourdes.30 The vast theatrical Nazi rallies often had a similar conversion effect. A predisposition – personality, illness, or intense needs produced by life problems – and strong emotion generated in a group context are conducive to conversion. Another path to fanaticism is gradual involvement. As they engage in limited actions in support of a movement, people change. They become ready for greater efforts. Their commitment to the group and its ideals increases, strengthened by the group’s rewards (and potential punishments) and by their new identity as members. A progression along a continuum of destruction is an important form of such gradual involvement.
There are also “good fanatics,” committed to human welfare rather than to grand, abstract ideals or ideologies. Examples are Oscar Schindler, a German who became obsessed with saving Jewish lives, and Mother Teresa, who is devoting her life to help the poor and sick in India. Some good fanatics cheat and lie and endanger themselves to fulfill their goals. But guided by their concrete goals of protecting the lives and welfare of people, rather than by abstract ideals, they are unlikely to inflict great harm on innocent people as they serve their aims.
Fanatics usually need the support of a group to develop their profound commitment. Even those who create extreme ideologies usually require followers, and the followers need support before they abandon themselves to the cause.
Behavior in groups
Belonging to a group makes it easier for people to act in ways that are out of the ordinary. Joining a group enables people to give up a burdensome self and adopt a shared and valued social identity. At the same time they can shed the inhibitions and limitations of individual identity, the formed structure of the self that is limiting even at the best of times, much more so when the self is devalued. Thus, as group members they can open up emotionally. They more easily experience love, connectedness, and caring within the group. Anger and hate toward outsiders can come to the fore, especially when the group’s beliefs promote these feelings. And they no longer need to take individual responsiblity for their actions; no one is responsible, or the group is responsible, or the group’s leader. Anonymity can lead to the loss of a well-defined separate identity that embodies inhibitions limiting antisocial behavior. Psychological research has shown that wearing a hood increases aggression (as it facilitated aggression by Ku Klux Klan members).31
Powerful emotions spread through contagion. It becomes difficult to deviate from group perceptions or values. To deviate in action and risk a break with the group may come to seem impossible. Deviation in thought and feeling alone leads to painful inner conflict and gives rise to defenses that keep the individual faithful. When group norms shift, it is difficult for the individual not to follow.
People predisposed to harm-doing may find membership in certain groups highly satisfying. Hostility toward outgroups becomes desirable; the authoritarian structure is familiar and comfortable; the camaraderie provides a haven in a hostile world.
The subcultures of perpetrators
Groups that perpetrate genocide are usually military or created in a military mold. In Argentina, the mass killings were initiated by military leaders and executed by military personnel. The SS had a military type of organization, with even greater than usual
