The doctors found selection more stressful than morally worse acts

Evidence

Selection was by no means the most unambiguously morally wrong thing the doctors did. However, Lifton’s interviews reveal that the doctors found it extremely stressful. They often did it drunk, or got drunk after it. Apparently, it caused them to face the moral implications of what they were doing, and did so in a particularly pointed way for the new doctors soon after their arrival in the camp. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3910

Categorization

• QUESTION: Why did selection specifically (versus other duties) provoke moral confrontation and drinking? Worth chasing the psychological mechanism.