Perpetrators can overlook their own role in degrading victims even when they caused it

Evidence

Lang argues that this was a conscious strategy, because it would have been inconceivable that the perpetrators could have ignored the fact that they themselves had reduced their victims to the pathetic state they were in before their deaths (Rosenbaum, 1998, p. 213). But, again, research on perceiver-induced constraint reveals that people do not always account for situational constraints on behavior, even when they themselves have constructed the situation. Thus, perpetrators could have focused on the degraded and pathetic state of their victims as justifica­ tion for both their past and their future victimization, even though the per­ petrators were actually responsible for their wretched state. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 362

Categorization

• XREF: Builds directly on perceiver-induced constraint already extracted in ch57; this chapter applies it to perpetrator self-exculpation. — connects to: People judge others based on behavior they themselves have constrained — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 358; Nazi guards could sincerely punish victims for conditions the guards themselves created — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 363; Perpetrators excuse harm by displacing blame and dehumanizing victims (+9 more)

Broader Connections

• Nazi degradation of victims functioned to spare the perpetrators’ own psychological distress. #exemplifies (0.90)
• Perpetrators excuse harm by displacing blame and dehumanizing victims #expands (0.88)
• Dehumanizing victims lets perpetrators disengage self-sanctions for mistreatment #corroborates (0.85)
• People derogate their victims to justify having harmed them. #corroborates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3962
• Devaluing victims as weak targets suppresses guilt in wrongdoers. #corroborates (0.82) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1411
• Devaluing victims enables harm without guilt or remorse #corroborates (0.80)
• Perpetrators recast their character flaws as assets making harm a side effect #expands (0.78)
• Dehumanizing victims as animals makes killing psychologically easier for perpetrators #corroborates (0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2449