Western psychology assumes conformity and obedience cause violence while autonomy prevents it.
Evidence
Compounding this moralism are the inescapably evaluative implications of the social-psychological mechanisms that influence individual behavior. Based on the classic studies of social influence by American and European psychologists (e.g., studies by Asch, Moscovici, and Milgram; see any social psychology textbook), it has been an axiom of Western psychology textbooks and of social analyses that conformity to peer groups and obedience to au thority lead easily to violence and hatred, and that the autonomous individual is the best hope for the present and the future. Social scientists have implied that those who are not appropriately independent are likely to become at the very least passive bystanders, if not actually torturers or murderers, by un critically following group pressure or orders from above. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 474
Categorization
- XREF: Names the Asch/Milgram obedience-to-authority canon that undergirds the ‘authoritarian personality’ bridge the reader is trying to connect to Glick’s scapegoating mechanism. — connects to: Conformity to peers, not personality, drives obedient cruelty. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 115; Situational deference to authority, not coercion, drives obedience to mass-murder regimes — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 46; Autonomy’s deontological shell is already compromised by parental, cultural, and environmental influence — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 502
- QUESTION: Is the conformity-to-violence axiom actually supported, or does the chapter go on to challenge it the way it challenged simple cognitive style?
Broader Connections
- Conformity to peers, not personality, drives obedient cruelty.
#corroborates(0.85) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 115 - Situational deference to authority, not coercion, drives obedience to mass-murder regimes
#corroborates(0.85) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 46 - Autonomy’s deontological shell is already compromised by parental, cultural, and environmental influence
#qualifies(0.80) — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 502