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Social psychologists have much to teach us about why groups of people attempt to exterminate other groups, why people participate in such atrocious projects, and how they live with themselves afterwards. By bringing together social psychological research on genocide previously available only to readers of academic journals, this volume sheds crucial light on human behavior at the extremes and in doing so, helps us take one more step towards preventing futuretragedies.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- PART 1: Lighting the Fuse: Psychological and Emotional Predispositions For Extreme Intergroup Violence
- Chapter 1: Genocide and the Male Warrior Psychology
- Adam Tratner and Melissa McDonald
- Chapter 2: Obedient authoritarians or lay Darwinists? Ideological motivations of genocide
- Micha? Bilewicz
- Chapter 3: How Envy Can Incite Anti-Semitism and Genocide
- Richard H. Smith and Charles E. Hoogland
- PART 2: The Genocidal Mindset
- Chapter 4: Emotional Sources of Intergroup Atrocities
- Michael J. A. Wohl, Nassim Tabri, and Eran Halperin
- Chapter 5: The many roles of dehumanization in genocide
- Nick Haslam
- Chapter 6: Moral Courage and Moral Disregard: Different Sides of the Same Coin?
- Allison B. Mueller and Linda J. Skitka
- Chapter 7: Understanding Intergroup Violence and Its Aftermath From Perpetrator and Victim Perspectives
- Mengyao Li and Bernhard Leidner
- PART 3: Evil is Not Inevitable: New Perspectives on Obedience and Social Influence
- Chapter 8: Engaged Followership and Engaged Fellowship: Towards a Unified Analysis of Harm-doing and Helping
- Stephen D. Reicher and S. Alexander Haslam
- Chapter 9: In what way is evil 'banal'? Hanna Arendt's (interactionist) thesis
- Leonard S. Newman
- PART 4: Never Again, Never Forget, Never Forgive, or Never Mind: The Aftermath of Extreme Intergroup Violence
- Chapter 10: The Aftermath of Genocide: Divergent Social Psychological Processes among Victim and Perpetrator Groups
- Johanna Ray Vollhardt and Michelle Sinayobye Twali
- Chapter 11: Understanding and Counteracting Genocide Denial
- Rezarta Bilali, Yeshim Iqbal, and Samuel Freel
- Chapter 12: Why do people become perpetrators of genocide? The dangers of explanation
- Ying Tang and Leonard S. Newman
About the author
Leonard S. Newman earned his PhD in social-personality psychology at New York University. He is an associate professor at Syracuse University, where he serves as Associate Chair of the psychology department. Dr. Newman is co-editor of Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the Holocaust and co-author of Social Psychology: A Storytelling Approach (both with Ralph Erber). His research interests include social stigma, dehumanization, psychological defense, and public perceptions of psychological research.
Summary
How do otherwise ordinary people become perpetrators of genocide? Why are groups targeted for mass killing? How do groups justify these terrible acts? While there are no easy answers to these questions, social psychologists are especially well positioned to contribute to our understanding of genocide and mass killing. With research targeting key questions -such as how negative impressions of outgroups develop and how social influence can lead people to violate their moral principles and other norms - social psychologists have much to teach us about why groups of people attempt to exterminate other groups, why people participate in such atrocious projects, and how they live with themselves afterwards. By bringing together research previously available only to readers of academic journals, this volume sheds crucial light on human behavior at the extremes and in doing so, helps us take one more step towards preventing future tragedies.
Additional text
This book makes a strong case that social psychology has something to contribute to understanding
