Characteristic psychological processes operate in groups. The boundaries of the self are weakened. The “I” becomes embedded, enveloped, and defined by the “we.” This makes emotional contagion easier, a form of empathy that I have called “empathic joining.”4 It exists even among animals; for example, it causes the spread of fear and the propensity for flight in herd animals.5 In human groups the speedy spread of feelings can lead to lynchings or mob violence. Emotional contagion is both a means of mutual influence and a source of satisfaction for group members.
The members’ perception of reality is shaped by their shared belief system and the support they receive from each other.b Thus, members of the John Birch Society could interpret the killing of sixty-seven peaceful demonstrators in South Africa in 1960 as necessary self-defense by the police against a mob of “frenzied savages.”7 Intense group beliefs are intensely defended by denial, selective perception, selective exposure to information, and other methods.
Steps along the continuum of destruction
As I have noted, individuals and groups change along many dimensions. Many influences contribute to change. Aside from those already discussed, there is evidence from research that children are more likely to learn helpfulness through participation in helping acts if they are also given reasons for helping, for example, if they are told of its benefits.8 Explanations and information even help people deal with pain.9 Propaganda, a type of information and explanation, is an important tool in the hands of perpetrators and an important force moving people along the continuum of destruction.
Further study is needed to specify and quantify the dimensions of change in individuals and groups that lead to group violence. A classification scheme might also specify the social institutions involved in varying forms of mistreatment and their evolution.
Historical hindsight about steps along the contiuum of destruction is not enough. As individuals and societies we must learn to foresee the potentials at an early stage. We must not allow small evil to pass until great evil triumphs.
The obligation of bystanders
People do not see themselves as bystanders (or perpetrators). They notice some events but not others. They process some events they notice while actively removing themselves from others.c How they respond depends on their motives, values, and aims. Frequently, they are inhibited by fear. But frequently they are so resocialized that they do not oppose, even in their hearts, the perpetrators’ aims. This has great “therapeutic” value, because it eliminates or short-circuits guilt, sympathetic distress, and fear. At times, the bystanders’ aims include protecting victims or helping people in need. Do witnesses to the mistreatment of other people have an obligation to act?
All groups teach values, some of which have an imperative quality to which members are held strictly accountable. But societies do not normally require or expect their members to endanger their lives or sacrifice themselves for the persecuted, especially for people defined as enemies of their own society. We do know, however, that victims are often innocent. We should hold up the ideal of effort and sacrifice in behalf of people in extreme need or danger. At times this requires great courage –
an important component of moral character.d
To avoid the catastrophes of group violence, people often need to act at an early stage, which requires a feeling of responsibility and often the social and moral courage to deviate, but normally not physical courage. Living in highly interdependent social groups, the well-being of all requires that people feel responsible for the welfare of others. We can expect people to engage with the world as responsible actors in shaping their immediate circumstances as well as the broader social order. We can expect them to see themselves as agents of human welfare, the welfare of others as well as their own.
In sum, we can expect that people will observe and make efforts to inhibit the mistreatment of members of their society – or of human beings anywhere. Thus, bystanders do have obligations. For these obligations to be fulfilled, certain social conditions must be created, and members of society must be socialized in certain ways (I will discuss this in Part IV). In the meantime, we must educate people about the “bystander role": the insidious effects and moral meaning of passivity and the psychological processes by which people distance themselves from those in need.
More and less central origins of genocide
What is the relative importance of various factors in the origin of genocide?
Cultural characteristics and life conditions act jointly. Difficult life conditions are unlikely, by themselves, to lead to genocide. Certain cultural characteristics are more central than others. Devaluation is highly central. Real pluralism prevents the development of broad support for harming the victims. Genocide is unlikely in a society with a moderately positive cultural self-concept; a positive evaluation and relatively equal treatment of subgroups; pluralistic culture and social organization; and the absence of a firm, authoritarian blueprint for a better society or better world. Unfortunately, most societies have at least some of the predisposing characteristics and therefore some propensity for group violence.
A strong pattern of predisposing characteristics may be enough by itself to make a group turn against another group, guided by motives that need not arise from life problems, such as the desire for economic gain or even images of the glory of war (see next chapter). In the Americas desire for land and economic expansion caused the mass killing of Indians, who were excluded from the pluralistic process.e Moreover, some life problems will inevitably arise in any society as a result of technological or other changes.
As I noted in Chapter 1, for many reasons the frequency of mass killing and attempts at genocide have been great since World War II. Extensive worldwide communication allows learning by example. Modeling influences many types of behavior, including aggression. The first airplane hijacking was immediately and repeatedly imitated.12 Knowledge about the Holocaust and other mass killings and about torture and terrorism has a cumulative impact. Such violence represents worldwide steps along a continuum of
