Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- 21 A Note on the Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence
- 22 The Psychology of Bystanders, Perpetrators, and Heroic Helpers
- 23 Steps Along a Continuum of Destruction: Perpetrators and Bystanders
- 24 The SS and the Psychology of Perpetrators: The Interweaving and Merging of Role and Person
- 25 The Origins of Genocide: Rwanda
- 26 Bystanders as Evil: The Example of Rwanda
- 27 Individual and Group Identities in Genocide and Mass Killing
- 28 Mass Murder: U.S. Involvement as Perpetrator, Passive Bystander, Helper
- 29 When Instigation Does Not Result in Mass Murder
- 30 Persian Gulf Conflict Was Reflection of Stormy Undercurrents in U.S. Psyche
- 31 Mob Violence: Cultural–Societal Sources, Instigators, Group Processes, and Participants
- 32 Understanding and Preventing Police Violence
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
- References
22 - The Psychology of Bystanders, Perpetrators, and Heroic Helpers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2010
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- 21 A Note on the Cultural–Societal Roots of Violence
- 22 The Psychology of Bystanders, Perpetrators, and Heroic Helpers
- 23 Steps Along a Continuum of Destruction: Perpetrators and Bystanders
- 24 The SS and the Psychology of Perpetrators: The Interweaving and Merging of Role and Person
- 25 The Origins of Genocide: Rwanda
- 26 Bystanders as Evil: The Example of Rwanda
- 27 Individual and Group Identities in Genocide and Mass Killing
- 28 Mass Murder: U.S. Involvement as Perpetrator, Passive Bystander, Helper
- 29 When Instigation Does Not Result in Mass Murder
- 30 Persian Gulf Conflict Was Reflection of Stormy Undercurrents in U.S. Psyche
- 31 Mob Violence: Cultural–Societal Sources, Instigators, Group Processes, and Participants
- 32 Understanding and Preventing Police Violence
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
- References
Summary
What leads groups of people or governments to perpetrate genocide or mass killing? What are the characteristics and psychological processes of individuals and societies that contribute to such group violence? What is the nature of the evolution that leads to it: What are the motives, how do they arise and intensify, how do inhibitions decline?
A primary example in this article will be the Holocaust, the killing of between 5 and 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II. Other examples will be the genocide of the Armenians in Turkey in 1915–1916, the “autogenocide” in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and the disappearances and mass killing in Argentina, mainly between 1976 and 1979. Many of the same influences are also present both in the widespread uses of torture and in terrorist violence.
In the United Nations charter on genocide the term denotes the extermination of a racial, religious, or ethnic group. Although not included in the charter, and although some scholars call it politicide (Harff & Gurr, 1990), the destruction of a whole political group is also widely regarded as genocide (Kuper, 1981). In mass killing, the boundaries of the victim group are less well defined, and the elimination of a whole racial, religious, or ethnic group is not intended. For example, in Argentina the victims included Communists, people seen as left leaning, and liberals who wanted to help the poor or supported social change.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychology of Good and EvilWhy Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others, pp. 291 - 324Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003
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