Research on genocide contradicts ordinary beliefs about evil’s origins.

Evidence

Each book contributes to what becomes, at a general level, a consistent picture of the origins of many of the evil acts in the world. Reading and rereading them, I have come to see that they sharply contradict our ordinary ways of thinking about the origins of evil, and that this is one of the major messages to be extracted from them. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3854

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: what everyday intuitions about evil get structurally wrong, using Milgram, Lifton, Kelman, Staub, and Arendt as the evidence base.
• XREF: Echoes Stanley Milgram’s conclusion that ordinary people, not monsters, perform atrocities—central theme of Milgram’s obedience work.