Rescuers of Holocaust Jews acted on humanization with no personal gain
Evidence
The preceding psychosocial analyses illustrate how individuals can shift rapidly from being moral disengagers to moral engagers through the transformative power of humanization. Social psychology often emphasizes the power of environmental forces over individuals. In the case of proactive moral courage, individuals triumph as moral agents over compelling environmental pressures to behave otherwise. Such moral heroism is most tellingly documented in rescuers who saved persecuted Jews from the death camps during the Nazi Holocaust (Oliner & Oliner, 1988). They did so at great risk to themselves and their families, with a heavy burden of extended protective care. The rescuers had no prior acquaintance with those they sheltered and had nothing material or social to gain by doing so. Such moral commitments involved courageous humaneness amid overwhelming evil. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 668
Social psychology often emphasizes the power of environmental forces over individuals. In the case of proactive moral courage, individuals triumph as moral agents over compelling environmental pressures to behave otherwise. Such moral heroism is most tellingly documented in rescuers who saved persecuted Jews from the death camps during the Nazi Holocaust (Oliner & Oliner, 1988). They did so at great risk to themselves and their families, with a heavy burden of extended protective care. The rescuers had no prior acquaintance with those they sheltered and had nothing material or social to gain by doing so. Such moral commitments involved courageous humaneness amid overwhelming evil. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 668
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to my prior interest in altruism and the Milgram experiments the other direction — same continuum of environmental power over moral action, inverted toward moral courage.
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 668