The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children Adults and Groups Help and Harm Others Read online

  The Psychology of Good and Evil

  Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others

  This book gathers together the knowledge gained in a lifelong study

  of the causes of goodness and evil. Since the 1960s Ervin Staub

  has studied the roots of helpful, caring, generous, and altruistic

  behavior in adults and their development in children, as well as

  passivity in response to others’ need. He has also studied bully-

  ing and victimization in schools, as well as youth violence and

  its prevention. He spent many years studying the origins (and

  prevention) of human destructiveness, genocide, and mass killing,

  and he has examined the Holocaust, the genocide of the Armenians,

  the disappearances in Argentina, the genocide in Rwanda, and other

  instances. He has applied his work in many real-world settings, in

  seminars, workshops, lectures, and in consultations with parents

  and teachers, police officers, and political leaders. He has appeared

  frequently in the media, since September 11 especially, to explain the

  causes and prevention of terrorism. Professor Staub has published, in

  addition to books, many articles and book chapters on these topics.

  A selection from these is gathered, with new writings added, in The

  Psychology of Good and Evil. The book presents a broad panorama

  of the roots of violence and caring and suggests how we can create

  societies and a world that are caring, peaceful, and harmonious. Two

  of the important themes of the book are how both evil and goodness

  evolve, step by step, and the great power of bystanders.

  Ervin Staub is Professor of Psychology at the University of

  Massachusetts at Amherst. He was born in Hungary, and received

  his B.A. and his Ph.D. (Stanford University, 1965) in the United

  States. He has taught at Harvard University, Stanford University,

  the University of Hawaii, and the London School of Economics and

  Political Science. He is a Fellow of four divisions of the American

  Psychological Association and was President of the Society for

  the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence (as well as recipient of

  its Lifetime Contribution to Peace Psychology award), and of the

  International Society for Political Psychology. Professor Staub applies

  his work to the promotion of caring, helping, “active bystandership,”

  and the prevention of violence through media appearances, work

  with organizations and schools, and working on healing and

  reconciliation in conflict settings such as Rwanda.

  Other books by Ervin Staub:

  Positive Social Behavior and Morality: Vol. 1. Personal and Social

  Influences

  Positive Social Behavior and Morality: Vol. 2. Socialization and

  Development

  Personality: Basic Aspects and Current Research ( editor )

  The Development and Maintenance of Prosocial Behavior: International

  Perspectives on Positive Morality ( coeditor )

  The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence

  Social and Moral Values: Individual and Societal Perspectives ( coeditor ) Patriotism in the Lives of Individuals and Nations ( coeditor )

  The Psychology of Good and Evil

  Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help

  and Harm Others

  ERVIN STAUB

  University of Massachusetts, Amherst

    

  Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo

  Cambridge University Press

  The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge  , United Kingdom

  Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

  www.cambridge.org

  Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521821285

  © Cambridge University Press 2003

  This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of

  relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

  First published in print format 2003

  isbn-13

  - 978-0-511-06185-1

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  -

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  - 978-0-521-52880-1  paperback

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  To Macs and to all “active bystanders”

  Contents

  Preface

  page xi

  Acknowledgments

  xv

  part i. introduction and core concepts

  1 Good and Evil: Themes and Overview

  3

  2 Studying the Pivotal Role of Bystanders

  26

  Daniel Goleman

  3 Studying and Promoting Altruism and Studying and

  Working to Prevent Genocide: The Guiding Role of

  Early Survival

  31

  4 Is Evil a Useful Concept for Psychologists and

  Others?

  47

  5 Basic Human Needs and Their Role in Altruism

  and Aggression

  52

  part ii. the roots of helping other people in need

  in contrast to passivity

  6 Helping a Distressed Person: Social, Personality, and

  Stimulus Determinants

  71

  7 Spontaneous (or Impulsive) Helping

  100

  8 Social and Prosocial Behavior: Personal and Situational

  Influences and Their Interactions

  103

  9 The Power to Help Others: Report on a Psychology Today

  Survey on Values, Helping, and Well-Being

  145

  vii

  viii

  Contents

  part iii. how children become caring and helpful

  rather than hostile and aggressive

  Part 1. Socialization, Culture, and Children’s Experience

  10 The Origins of Caring, Helping, and Nonaggression: Parental

  Socialization, the Family System, and Cultural Influence

  159

  11 Natural Socialization: The Role of Experience or Learning

  by Doing

  173

  12 The Origins of Hostility and Aggression

  199

  13 Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence: Youth Violence

  212

  14 Bystanders and Bullying

  224

  15 Students’ Experience of Bullying and Oth
er Aspects

  of Their Lives in Middle School in Belchertown:

  Report Summary

  227

  Ervin Staub and Darren A. Spielman

  16 Passive and Active Bystandership across Grades in

  Response to Students Bullying Other Students

  240

  Ervin Staub, D. Fellner, Jr., J. Berry, and K. Morange

  17 Self-Esteem and Aggression

  244

  18 Father–Daughter Incest

  248

  Part 2. Interventions to Reduce Aggression and Promote Caring

  and Helping

  19 Reducing Boys’ Aggression: Learning to Fulfill Basic

  Needs Constructively

  252

  Darren A. Spielman and Ervin Staub

  20 Creating Caring Schools: Design and Content of a

  Program to Develop Caring, Helping, Positive

  Self-Esteem, and Nonviolence

  267

  part iv. the origins of genocide, mass killing, and

  other collective violence

  21 A Note on the Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence

  289

  22 The Psychology of Bystanders, Perpetrators, and Heroic

  Helpers

  291

  23 Steps Along a Continuum of Destruction: Perpetrators

  and Bystanders

  325

  24 The SS and the Psychology of Perpetrators: The

  Interweaving and Merging of Role and Person

  336

  25 The Origins of Genocide: Rwanda

  341

  26 Bystanders as Evil: The Example of Rwanda

  346

  Contents

  ix

  27 Individual and Group Identities in Genocide and

  Mass Killing

  351

  28 Mass Murder: U.S. Involvement as Perpetrator, Passive

  Bystander, Helper

  360

  29 When Instigation Does Not Result in Mass Murder

  368

  30 Persian Gulf Conflict Was Reflection of Stormy

  Undercurrents in U.S. Psyche

  373

  31 Mob Violence: Cultural–Societal Sources, Instigators,

  Group Processes, and Participants

  377

  Ervin Staub and Lori H. Rosenthal

  32 Understanding and Preventing Police Violence

  404

  part v. the aftermath of mass violence: trauma,

  healing, prevention, and reconciliation

  33 Preventing Group Violence

  419

  34 Kosovo: The Need for Flexible Bystander Response

  428

  35 The Effects of Violence on Groups and Their Members

  430

  36 Healing, Reconciliation, and Forgiving after Genocide

  and Other Collective Violence

  432

  Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman

  37 Healing, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation in Rwanda:

  Project Summary and Outcome, with Addendum on

  Other Projects

  451

  Ervin Staub and Laurie Anne Pearlman

  38 Further Avenues to Prevention

  455

  39 Commentary: Human Destructiveness and the Refugee

  Experience

  460

  40 A Vision of Holocaust Education in Holocaust Centers

  and Schools

  464

  41 Out of Hiding

  470

  42 Review of Legacy of Silence: Encounters with Children of the

  Third Reich

  474

  43 What Can We Learn from This Tragedy? A Reaction Days

  after September 11, 2001

  479

  part vi. creating caring, morally inclusive,

  peaceful societies

  44 Changing Cultures and Society

  483

  45 Transforming the Bystanders: Altruism, Caring, and Social

  Responsibility

  489

  x

  Contents

  46 Blind versus Constructive Patriotism: Moving from

  Embeddedness in the Group to Critical

  Loyalty and Action

  497

  47 Manifestations of Blind and Constructive Patriotism:

  Summary of Findings

  513

  Based on work with Robert Schatz

  48 The Ideal University in the Real World

  516

  49 Conclusion: Creating Caring Societies

  531

  Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?

  551

  Index

  561

  Preface

  I received my Ph.D. in psychology at Stanford in 1965, started my work life

  as a professor at Harvard, and almost immediately began to focus on the

  topics of this book: goodness and evil. For many years, I have conducted

  research on, extensively written about, and more and more applied to the

  real world the understanding that is presented in this book on a variety of

  interrelated questions: What leads children and adults to be generous and

  helpful, and what leads them to respond to someone’s urgent need in

  an emergency rather than remain passive bystanders? Why do children

  and adolescents bully, harass, and intimidate each other, and what can we

  do about it? What influences lead people, especially young people, to be-

  come aggressive and violent, and what socialization and experience in the

  home and school lead children and youth to become caring and helpful?

  What leads groups of people to engage in violent actions, especially in ex-

  treme forms of violence such as genocide and mass killing? How can groups

  (and individuals) heal from the trauma created by past victimization? How

  can members of perpetrator and victim groups, or members of groups that

  have mutually harmed each other, reconcile? What is the role of passive

  bystanders in allowing violence to unfold, and how can we use the great

  potential power of “active bystanders” for preventing violence or generat-

  ing helping? And how can violence and other harm-doing by individuals

  and groups be prevented and caring, helping, and peace be promoted, and

  how can cultures that generate these be created? Since September 11, 2001,

  I have also applied my prior work to the understanding of the roots of

  terrorism and its prevention.

  As I engaged with these issues over the years, I increasingly entered

  the “real world.” I lectured and conducted workshops for parents and

  teachers on practices in the home and school that would help them raise

  caring and nonviolent children. In this book I write about positive (as well

  as negative) socialization in the home and about the practices of “caring

  schools.” It is possible to provide all children, I believe, with experiences

  xi

  xii

  Preface

  that foster in them caring about other people, while also helping them

  maximize their own personal and human potentials, that is, helping them

  to become optimally functioning persons. It seems profoundly important

  to me, and I hope it will seem so to readers of this book, to bring this about.

  In another entry into the real world, after the famous incident that some-

  one captured on film – in which a few police officers severely beat Rodney

  King while a group of officers stood by watching – I developed a train-

  ing program for the agency responsible for police training in the state of

  California, aimed at preventing the use of unnecessary force by the police.

  Later, together with Dr. Laurie Anne Pearlman, I de
veloped, trained people

  in, and carefully evaluated the effects of their use in the community of an

  intervention to help promote healing and reconciliation in Rwanda, in the

  wake of the terrible genocide there in 1994. We have also worked with some

  of that country’s leaders to help them understand the roots of violence and

  develop policies and practices they might use to prevent renewed violence

  and to break the cycle of violence.

  As I am writing this, in December 2002, we are about to leave for Rwanda

  to try to help channel the feelings that arise from the gacaca, so that instead of retraumatization and renewed rage and hostility, the country can move

  toward reconciliation. The gacaca is a community justice system, newly cre-

  ated and initiated in 2001–2002. It was inspired by a traditional practice in

  Rwanda for resolving conflict and reconciling wrongdoers with the com-

  munity. The large majority of 115,000 people who have been in prison since

  1994, accused of perpetrating the genocide, will be tried in gacaca courts by 250,000 members of the community who were elected to serve as judges

  and trained over a period of several months.

  As I have mentioned, I have done extensive writing in books, articles,

  book chapters, and at times in newspaper columns, about the topics I have

  just described: the roots and prevention of evil and the roots and creation

  of goodness. This book is a selection from my writings, covering primarily

  the period from the publication of my book on evil, The Roots of Evil, in

  1989, to 2003; it also includes a number of earlier publications that I regard

  as especially important – particularly about influences that lead people to

  help others in need – and substantial new writings.

  The Roots of Evil provides a thorough, detailed examination of the roots

  of genocide and mass killing at many levels, from culture and society to

  individual characteristics and human relationships, with detailed analyses

  of a number of important instances. The current book is much broader in

  its focus. It focuses on goodness as much as evil, on what leads individ-

  uals to help others, and on how caring and helping develop in children.

  Although I do not provide here the same deep exploration of the roots of

  genocide and mass killing, I summarize the material from The Roots of Evil

  in an award-winning publication that I have recently updated. I include

  publications that focus on new examples, especially Rwanda. I describe

  Preface

  xiii

  influences I have identified since The Roots of Evil – for example, the role of past victimization and woundedness in making violence by groups more