Group immersion and ideological training erode individual moral decision making in perpetrators.
Evidence
Group processes come to dominate the psychology of perpetrators. Embed ded in a group, trained in submission to authority, and further indoctrinated in ideology, people give up individual decision making to the group and its leaders (Milgram, 1974; Zimbardo, 1969). The “We” acquires substantial power, in place of the “I.” With the boundaries of the self weakened, there will be emotional contagion, the spread of feelings among group members (Milgram & Toch, 1969; Staub, 1987; Staub & Rosenthal, 1994), and shared reactions to events. The members’ perception of reality will be shaped by their shared belief system and by the support they receive from each other in in terpreting events. Deviation from the group becomes increasingly unlikely (Staub, 1989a; Toch, 1965). — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 136
Categorization
- XREF: Ties directly to Milgram and Zimbardo obedience/situation experiments the reader likely has filed under social psychology of evil. — connects to: Perceived in-group moral violations trigger defensive cognitive distortions. — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt: Modes…, 46; Group moral disengagement exceeds the sum of individual members’ mind-sets; Defensive moral disengagement after in-group wrongdoing is not universal or deterministic — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2151 (+15 more)
Broader Connections
- Group anonymity and emotional arousal override individual moral judgment
#corroborates(0.85) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 435 - Detected ingroup harm triggers a moral shift elevating loyalty over harm principles
#corroborates(0.85) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2125 - Defensive moral disengagement after in-group wrongdoing is not universal or deterministic
#complicates(0.82) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2151 - Moral disengagement mechanisms enable justification of in-group harm.
#expands(0.80) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 47 - Moral judgments serve group cohesion, not abstract individual reasoning
#corroborates(0.80) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 465 - Group-level moral disengagement is an emergent property, not a sum of individual exonerations
#expands(0.80) - Group moral disengagement exceeds the sum of individual members’ mind-sets
#expands(0.78) - Blame shifting and victim disparagement routinely override moral principle in institutional self-defense
#exemplifies(0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 508 - Moral principle shifts may be part of a broader self-reconfiguration under in-group processing
#corroborates(0.78) - Shared identity with the perpetrator is the critical precondition for moral disengagement
#qualifies(0.77) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2112 - Moral disengagement strategies only mediate glorification’s effect for ingroup-perpetrated violence
#qualifies(0.76) — Bernhard Leidner et al., Ingroup Glorification, Moral…, 123 - Perceived in-group moral violations trigger defensive cognitive distortions.
#expands(0.75) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 46 - General in-group identification does not predict moral disengagement toward victims
#complicates(0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2113 - Threat to in-group moral image triggers defensive reinterpretation of atrocity reports.
#expands(0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 2136 - Perceiving a group’s wrongdoing as situationally justifiable blocks collective guilt
#expands(0.74) — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt, 297