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

  For those who suffered.

  In hope of a better world.

  The roots of evil

  ERVIN STAUB is Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has conducted extensive research and published many articles on helping, altruism, values, aggression, and motivation. He is author of the two-volume work, Positive Social Behavior and Morality. In 1990, Professor Staub was awarded the Intercultural and International Relations Prize of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (a division of the American Psychological Association).

  The roots of evil

  The origins of genocide and other group violence

  ERVIN STAUB

  University of Massachusetts at Amherst

  CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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  Cambridge University Press

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  © Cambridge University Press 1989

  This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

  First published 1989

  20th printing 2009

  Printed in the United States of America

  A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 978-0-521-42214-7 paperback

  Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work are correct at the time of first printing, but Cambridge University Press does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter.

  Contents

  Preface

  Acknowledgments

  Part I Psychological and cultural bases of genocide and other forms of group violence

  1 An introduction

  The approach and content of the book

  A brief preview

  • Differences and similarities and the selection of cases

  The definitions of genocide and mass killing

  Four mass killings/genocides

  The Holocaust

  • The genocide of the Armenians

  • The autogenocide (Khmer killing Khmer) in Cambodia

  • The disappearances in Argentina

  • Is mass killing ever justified?

  2 The origins of genocide and mass killing: core concepts

  A conception of the origins of genocide and mass killing

  Difficult life conditions

  • Psychological consequences: needs and goals

  • Ways of coping and fulfilling needs and goals

  • The continuum of destruction

  • Cultural-societal characteristics

  • The role of bystanders

  • The role of motivation

  Leadership and followership

  The individual and the system

  The roots of evil

  Groups as evil or good

  Comparison of personal (and social) goal theory and other approaches

  Compartmentalization of functions and euphemistic language

  • Obedience to authority and the authoritarianism of culture

  • Psychosocial consequences of World War I on German youth

  • Anti-Semitism in Germany

  • The role of the family

  • Hitler’s personality and psychopathology

  • The role of victims

  • Complex analyses of the origins of the Holocaust

  • Some further comparisons

  Summary: a conception of motivation and evolution

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

  Motivations arising from threat, frustration, or difficult life conditions

  Motivational sources of human behavior

  • Motivations for aggression: psychological states and processes that promote aggression

  • Difficult life conditions and aggression

  The effect of stress and danger on psychological experience

  The long-term effects of combat experience

  Strategies for coping and goal satisfaction

  4 Cultural and individual characteristics

  The influence of culture

  Aggressiveness as a persistent behavioral mode

  • Cultural self-concept, self-esteem, and world view

  • Cultural goals and values

  • Moral value orientations

  • Ingroup-outgroup differentiation and devaluation of outgroups

  • Pluralistic and monolithic cultures

  • Orientation to authority

  • Unconscious motivation – individual and cultural

  The influence of sociopolitical organization

  Governmental system

  • Social institutions

  5 The psychology of perpetrators: individuals and groups

  Roles and other social processes as origins of harm-doing

  Self-selection and the personality of perpetrators

  The potentially antisocial person

  • Family origins of the potentially antisocial personality

  • Authority orientation and its sources in the family

  The origins of destructiveness in personality and in the situation

  The fanatic as perpetrator

  Behavior in groups

  The subcultures of perpetrators

  • Psychological functioning and individual responsibility

  6 Steps along a continuum of destruction: perpetrators and bystanders

  Just-world thinking

  Learning by doing and the evolution of extreme destructiveness

  Compartmentalization and integration

  Other origins of mistreatment

  The role and power of bystanders

  Part II The Nazi Holocaust

  7 Hitler comes to power

  Genocide and “insanity”

  Life conditions: loss of war, the Treaty of Versailles, and economic and political chaos

  The guiding motive for the Holocaust: ideology

  Reasons for Hitler’s appeal: a summary

  8 Preconditions for the Holocaust in German culture

  The devaluation of Jews

  Self-concept, self-esteem, and national goals

  The Germans as a superior people

  Respect for and obedience to authority

  The influence of Nietzsche

  Rationality versus sentimental romanticism

  The psychological effects on German youth of World War I and the postwar period

  Youth groups and military groups after World War I

  9 Nazi rule and steps along the continuum of destruction

  Increasing mistreatment of Jews

  The evolution of ideas, actions, and the system: euthanasia and genocide

  The power of giving onself over to a group, an ideal, or a leader

  The role of the totalitarian system

  10 The SS and the psychology of perpetrators

  The creation, evolution, and role of the SS

  Characteristics of SS members

  Learning by participationr />
  The interweaving and merging of role and person

  The extermination camps: Auschwitz

  The psychology of perpetrators: individuals and the system

  The characteristics and functioning of perpetrators

  • Behavioral shifts

  Moral equilibration, choice, and responsibility

  Individual responsibility

  The completion tendency: killing till the very end

  11 The behavior and psychology of bystanders and victims

  The role of bystanders

  The passivity of German bystanders

  • Bystanders and perpetrators in Nazi Europe

  • The passivity of the outside world

  Jewish cooperation, resistance, and psychological experience

  The Jewish councils

  • Jewish actions

  • The psychology of victims

  The power of heroic bystanders

  Heroic rescuers

  Part III Other genocides and mass killings

  12 The Turkish genocide of the Armenians

  Historical (life) conditions

  Cultural preconditions

  The devaluation of minorities and Christians

  • Orientation to authority

  Steps along the continuum of destruction

  Devaluation and increasing mistreatment

  Armenian “provocation”

  The evolution of Young Turk ideology

  The machinery of destruction

  The genocide

  The role of bystanders

  13 Cambodia: genocide to create a better world

  Historical (life) conditions

  Cambodian peasants: economic conditions, uprising, reprisals

  • Political instability and violence

  The Khmer Rouge rule and “autogenocide”

  Ideological bias and reports and views of atrocities

  Ideology, world view, and the aims of the Khmer Rouge

  Cultural preconditions: the roots of ideology and genocide

  Class divisions, urban-rural rift, and slavery

  • Orientation to authority

  • The ideology of antagonism toward Vietnam

  • Cultural self-concept

  • A tradition of violence in Cambodia

  Experiential and intellectual sources of ideology and fanaticism

  Gaining followers: the tools of revolution and genocide

  The role of specific individuals

  Steps along the continuum of destruction

  The role of bystanders

  14 This disappearances: mass killing in Argentina

  Historical (life) conditions

  Economic difficulties

  • Political conflict and violence

  Cultural preconditions

  The role of the military in public life

  • The self-concept and ideology of the military

  Steps along the continuum of destruction

  Changing institutions

  • The machinery of destruction

  The mass killings

  The selection of victims: ideology, self-interest, caprice

  The psychology of direct perpetrators

  The role of bystanders

  Internal bystanders

  • Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo

  • External bystanders

  Conclusions

  15 Summary and conclusions: the societal and psychological origins of genocide and other atrocities

  A comparison of the four instances

  Difficult life conditions

  • Cultural preconditions

  Leaders and followers

  The psychology and motives of perpetrators

  The psychological processes of groups

  Steps along the continuum of destruction

  The obligation of bystanders

  More and less central origins of genocide

  Predicting genocide and mass killing

  The psychology of torture and torturers

  Part IV Further extensions: the roots of war and the creation of caring and nonaggressive persons and societies

  16 The cultural and psychological origins of war

  Motivations for war

  Cultural preconditions for war

  The ideology of antagonism

  • Societal self-concept and national goals

  • Nationalism, belonging, and the self-concept

  • National security and related ideologies

  • World views that contribute to war

  • Pluralistic versus monolithic societies

  • Leadership

  The national interest

  Minimalism in the relations of nations

  Toward positive reciprocity

  17 The nature of groups: security, power, justice, and positive connection

  Assumptions about human nature and the nature of societies

  An alternative view of individual and group potentials

  Relations between the individual and the group

  Important societal issues

  Social justice and life problems

  • Creating a society of enablement

  • Individualism and community

  • The accountability of leaders

  • Freedom, pluralism, and self-censorship

  18 The creation and evolution of caring, connection, and nonaggression

  Changing cultures and the relations between societies

  Crosscutting relations and superordinate goals

  • Learning by doing and steps along a continuum of benevolence

  • Creating positive connections between groups

  Positive socialization: parenting, the family, and schools Avenues for change

  Language and ideas

  • Writers, artists, the media, leaders, all citizens

  Notes

  Index

  Preface

  Before I first thought of writing this book, I had for many years been conducting research and writing articles and books on the psychological origins of people helping others in need. Psychologists call this altruism, or “prosocial behavior.” In early 1979 I completed the second of my two-volume Positive Social Behavior and Morality, and that summer, during a sabbatical leave, I began to read seriously about the Holocaust.1I realized that a number of concepts that were useful for understanding why people did or did not help others in need were also useful for understanding the extreme destructiveness of the perpetrators of the Holocaust.

  For example, a feeling of responsibility for other people’s welfare greatly increases the likelihood of helping during an accident or sudden illness. This is partly a matter of personality, but it also depends on circumstances. A person helps more when circumstances focus responsibility on him or her. People help less when circumstances diffuse responsibility among a number of those who are present or focus it elsewhere (e.g., on a doctor who is present). I reasoned that harming and killing members of a group become possible when a feeling of responsibility for their welfare has been lost as a result of profound devaluation by a society or by an ideology adopted by the society.

  It was clear to me that devaluation and loss of responsibility alone will not directly lead to genocide. Instead, an evolution must occur. Limited mistreatment of the victims changes the perpetrators and prepares them for extreme destructiveness. This was first suggested to me when in my laboratory children whom we involved in prosocial acts became more willing to help others. Research indicates that adults are also changed by their own prior actions. People learn by doing. Extreme destructiveness, it seemed to me, is usually the last of many steps along a continuum of destruction.

  I was also struck by the influence of bystanders who knew of or witnessed the persecution of Jews. In Denmark, in the French Huguenot village of Le Chambon, and in a few other places where bystanders resisted Nazi persecution of Jews, the persecutors changed their behavior. Research strengthened my belief in the power of bystanders. What one bystander said du
ring an emergency defined the meaning of the situation and influenced others’ helping. What a bystander did affected others; passivity reduced and action increased helping.

  I felt I had the beginnings of an understanding. I knew, however, that the Holocaust had been described as an incomprehensible evil. This view, it seemed to me, romanticized evil and gave it mythic proportions. It discouraged the realistic understanding that is necessary if we are to work effectively for a world without genocides and mass killings and torture.

  During the next few years I read and taught courses, first about the Holocaust, then about other genocides and “lesser” cruelties such as mass killings and torture (for a discussion of definitions see Chapter 1). I began to write and lecture on how genocides and mass killings in general come about and to work on this book. This process also led to further exploration of the development of human caring and connection and to an attempt to specify an agenda for creating caring and connection within and between groups.

  The reasons for undertaking this task were not disinterested. Their origins are in my personal experience. It took me many years to begin to pay attention to this; my resistance may have been a defense against feelings of loss and sorrow that I was not ready to deal with. I was fortified in this by the professional stance of the disinterested social scientist.

  As a Jewish child in Budapest, I was six years old in the horrendous summer of 1944, when the Nazis took over four hundred thousand Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz, where most were murdered on arrival. My immediate family – my parents, my sister, and I – miraculously survived until the end of the war in one of the “protected” houses created by Raoul Wallenberg. Wallenberg, whose heroic deeds are by now well known, was a Swede who accepted a mission to come to Hungary and attempt to save Jewish lives.2 His strategy was to create, in his capacity as a Swedish diplomat, “letters of protection” that guaranteed Hungarian Jews Swedish citizenship after the war. The Hungarian authorities allowed a few thousand such documents; many false ones were also created. Some other embassies – the Swiss, the Spanish – followed Wallenberg’s example.

  Wallenberg managed to buy houses into which people with letters of protection could move. Although there were constant raids on these houses by Hungarian Nazis (the Arrow Cross), many women and children survived. (My father was in a forced labor camp. He escaped when his group was on its way to Germany and was its sole survivor. He hid with us in the protected house and was undetected during several raids on the house.)

  I was also powerfully influenced by a Christian woman who worked many years for my family. I love her and consider her my second mother. Maria Ggn took my sister and me into hiding at one point, when it seemed that all Jews would be collected for “deportation” (that is, taken to Auschwitz for extermination). She procured food for us and the others in the protected house. In the midst of cruelty and violence she risked her life for others, not only for our family, but even for strangers.