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

associates and I induced children to engage in helpful acts and found that afterward they helped and shared more.⁷ Children who taught a younger child, wrote letters to hospitalized children, or made toys for poor hospitalized children became more helpful on later occasions than children who spent the same time in activities that were similar in nature but not helpful to others.⁸ Examining past research (much of it conducted to test unrelated hypotheses such as the effects of modeling) I found evidence for the same conclusion.⁹ The research offers support for the view of some philosophers that morality is learned through moral action. Learning by doing is a basis for developing values, motives, the self concept, and behavioral tendencies.

Even if initially there is some external pressure, it often becomes difficult to experience regular participation in an activity as alien. People begin to see their engagement in the activity as part of themselves. The less force is used, the more this happens. People come to see themselves as agents and begin to consider and elaborate on the reasons for their actions. If there are benefits to others, even imagined ones, they begin to find the activity worthwhile and its beneficiaries more deserving. If there is harm to others, progressively the victims’ well-being and even lives will lose value in their eyes. In other words, people observe their own actions and draw inferences, both about those affected by them and about themselves.¹⁰ They attribute to themselves such characteristics as helpfulness or toughness or willingness to harm. Further actions consistent with their changing views of themselves become likely.

Other experiments have explored the “foot in the door” phenomenon.¹¹ When people are asked for a small favor and comply, they become more likely to agree later to a larger favor than they would if they had been immediately asked for the larger favor. For example, they are more likely to agree to put a large campaign sign on their front lawn if they earlier agreed to put on a small one.

When helping persists for some time, with increasing risk to the helper, the helper’s commitment often grows. Rescuers of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe often responded first to the need of a friend or acquaintance and then went on to help others, sometimes becoming active in underground railroads. Some who intended to hide a family for only a day or two decided to keep hiding them for years. Still other helpers, such as the Swede Raoul Wallenberg and the German Oscar Schindler, became obsessed with their mission to save lives.

The evolution from indifference to total devotion is clear in the case of Oscar Schindler.¹² He followed the German army into Poland, took over a confiscated factory, and enriched himself, using Jewish slave labor. However, he treated his Jewish laborers as human beings, talked to them, listened to them. He started doing them small favors, then greater ones. Later he established a camp next to his factory to protect his workers from the SS, especially the murderous commander of the nearby concentration camp. He repeatedly endangered his life and sacrificed all his possessions, while saving the lives of twelve hundred Jews.

People also change as they harm others. Many experiments use the “teacher-learner paradigm,” in which a “teacher” gives a “learner” electric shocks every time the learner makes an error. Even without any instruction to do so, teachers tend to increase the intensity of the shocks over time.¹³ When there is instruction to increase the shock level, in the obedience experiments, the increase is gradual, step by step, so that learning by participation makes obedience easier. Both in these experiments and in real life, repeatedly and increasingly harming others makes it difficult to shift course. Unusual events offer decision points; in the obedience studies many who decided to stop did so when the learner-victim began to protest. However, the pressures of authorities and the system and changes that result from past harm-doing often combine with predispositions to override such opportunities.

Learning by doing is also found in research using verbal reinforcements. One person is instructed to speak either approving or disapproving words in response to certain words used by another person.¹⁴ As time passes, the intensity of both rewarding and punishing verbal reinforcements tends to increase. In addition, the learners are devalued by those who punished them.^a

How does harmful behavior become the norm? What internal changes take place in people? Doing harm to a good person or passively witnessing it is inconsistent with a feeling of responsiblity for the welfare of others and the belief in a just world. Inconsistency troubles us.¹⁵ We minimize it by reducing our concern for the welfare of those we harm or allow to suffer. We devalue them, justify their suffering by their evil nature or by higher ideals. A changed view of the victims, changed attitude toward that suffering, and changed self-concept result.

Hannah Arendt describes a turning point for Eichmann. When he was first exposed to the bodies of massacred Jews, he reacted with revulsion. But “higher ideals” (that is, powerful motives) such as Nazi ideology and loyalty to the führer, as well as a desire to advance his career, led him to ignore his distress and continue with his “work.” The distress eventually disappeared.¹⁶ Bruno Bettelheim described the inner struggle of a man who was against the Nazis but had to use the obligatory greeting “Heil Hitler.” Even such a limited participation can result in substantial psychological reorganization.¹⁷

The Greek torturers also learned by participation.¹⁸ First they stood guard outside interrogation and torture cells. Then they witnessed torture and provided help in beating up prisoners. They had to perform these duties satisfactorily before they were given a role as torturers.

Ideological movements and totalitarian systems induce members to participate. Members must follow special rituals and rules; they must join in educational or work activities for building the new society. The more they participate, the more difficult it becomes for them to distance themselves from the system’s goals and deviate from its norms of conduct,