Bystanders’ inaction is read as tacit approval by both perpetrator and victim

Evidence

Other books under consideration here give alternate accounts of Lifton’s conversion process, but do not contradict it. They draw on Milgram’s experimental work to illuminate their accounts. Without pausing here to sketch the account each gives, although that is a worthy task, I comment on what other elements of the process they call to our attention. Staub reminds us of the causal role of the bystander in the process—the interpreted meaning of the actions of those who stood by, not protesting, as harm was done to persecuted minorities. Their apparent indifference was certainly taken as tacit approval by others who also watched, and who might have been otherwise moved to protest. In a dynamic that Latané and I (1970) have described, this leads to a “contagion of inaction” among all bystanders. Thus, bystanders who fail to intervene, perhaps because they are stunned into passivity, are read by both perpetrator and victim as condoning the acts of the perpetrator and approving the victimization of the harmed. Kristallnacht was a signal to the Jews of what the Nazi regime would do. The general lack of protest by other Germans, whatever the reasons, was a signal to the Jews that they would not be protected by non-Nazi Germans. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3944

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces and explains the ‘contagion of inaction’ dynamic from Darley and Latané’s 1970 work.
• SEED: An essay angle: the Kristallnacht example as a case study in how institutional indifference functions as a communication channel to victims.
• XREF: connects to: Bystander passivity both legitimizes perpetrators and transforms the bystanders themselves — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 72; Bystander passivity compounds through self-justification and victim devaluation. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 138; Silence transforms bystanders and emboldens perpetrators — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 151