Cultures can be primed for obedience by indoctrination and moralizing children’s tales

Evidence

Milgram was also on solid ground in pinpointing obedience to authority as a possible key to understanding the Holocaust, given the high value placed on it by Nazi ideology and German culture generally. For example, the first of 12 commandments listed in a primer used to indoctrinate Nazi youth was “The leader is always right” (Berger, 1983, p. 25). And many generations of German children grew up on cautionary tales, such as that of Struwwelpeter or Shock-Headed Peter, whose moral was that disobedience could lead to rather drastic, violent consequences. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 618

Categorization

• CANDY: ‘The leader is always right’ as commandment number one, plus Shock-Headed Peter as a childhood obedience lesson — quick, vivid, elevator-ready.
• XREF: connects to: Traditional village stories forced children to confront impossible moral dilemmas — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 864; The kindness-rewarded, greed-punished tale recur in nearly every human culture independently — , A Year of World Stories, 9258; Religious training emphasizing rule obedience and fear of God creates authoritarian personalities — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1961 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Religious training emphasizing rule obedience and fear of God creates authoritarian personalities #expands (0.90) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1961
• Evangelical patriarchal culture prioritized obedience to authority over compassion and justice #expands (0.85) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 653
• The kindness-rewarded, greed-punished tale recur in nearly every human culture independently #exemplifies (0.80) — , A Year of World Stories, 9258
• Traditional village stories forced children to confront impossible moral dilemmas #expands (0.75) — Farrar, Straus and Giroux Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone- Memoirs of a Boy…, 864