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Naziism & Holocaust
Eichmann in Jerusalem
Obedience to Authority
Stanford Prison Experiment
Sanctioned Massacres
Anti-Semitism
• Christian: Jews as killers of God
agents of Satan / killers of babies
money-lenders• Nazi: communist conspiracy
conspiracy of financiers
biological race theory: parasites
bacteria
vermin
Psychology’s Response to Fascism
• Obedience -- Milgram & others
• Authoritarianism -- Adorno et al &
others
Nazi-ism:Leader Principle & Prejudice
Authoritarian Personality (T. Adorno et al)
Obedience to Authority (S. Milgram)
? ?
Eichmann
Eichmann in Jerusalem
• Anti-Semitic?
• Authoritarian?
• Personality change?
• Conscience?
• “Banality of Evil”?
Lt. Calley
• “I was ordered by Capt. Medina to kill everybody.”
• Sentenced to life in prison (released in 1974)
Lt. Calley
• “I was ordered by Capt. Medina to kill everybody.”
• Sentenced to life in prison (released in 1974)
Milgram Obedience Experiment
• Subject: plays “teacher” role
• Confederate: plays “learner” role
• Confederate: plays “experimenter” role
Milgram Obedience Experiment
• Series of experiments:
Indep. variables: proximity of authority
salience of victim
group admin of shock
Dep. Variable: shock level
Factors increasing obedience:
• Authority of experimenter
• Proximity of experimenter
• Distance form victim
• Absence of dissenters
• Presence of other compliers
• Reduced role in giving shock
• Authority of institution
Zimbardo Prison Experiment
• Random assignment of prisoners & guards
• 5 released – “extreme emotional depression, crying, rage and acute anxiety”
• Ended after 6 days
Zimbardo Prison Experiment
• Guards found “sense of power was exhilarating”
• Prisoner responses:– Disbelief, confusion, disorientation– Rebellion– Isolation, self-interest, deprecation– Half became “sick”
Zimbardo: Prisoner Responses
• Loss of personal identity– “Deindividuation”
• Learned helplessness
• Emasculation
Power of role
Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment
• Impact of role(s) within authority system:
– Undermining of old identity
– Building of new identity
Sanctioned MassacresKelman & Hamilton
• Authorization
• Routinization
• De-individuation of actor
• De-humanization of victims
Sanctioned Massacres
• Authorization: authority situation– relieves individual of moral responsibility– calls into play morality of loyalty & duty
• Routinization: role in organization– task becomes a job– violence broken into tasks– language of euphamisms
Sanctioned Massacres
• De-individuation of the actor– individual takes on identity of organization– de-emphasize personal characteristics
• De-humanization of the victims– victims given group identity– victims portrayed as non-human– Deprived of membership in common human
group
Sanctioned Massacres
• Killers & torturers can be made
• Tearing-down & re-construction of identity– separation– “liminal” phase of instruction, rehearsal &
testing– return in new status