The deliberate killing of a large group of people,
especially those of a particular nation or ethnic group.
Stages (Staub, 1999)
1. Difficult social conditions
2. Scapegoating of a less powerful group
3. Negative evaluation and dehumanisation
4. Moral values and rules becoming inapplicable
5. Passivity of bystanders
Doing nothing appears to merely allow the killing to continue
unabated, may even escalate it by signalling apathy.
Intervention (e.g. by the UN) can shorten a conflict;
might also hasten perpetrators to step up their
genocidal policy within that period of time.
e.g. Rwandan Genocide, 800'000 people died within 100 days
Social Conflict
Power/feelings of superiority
Change/removal of
consequences/laws
Propaganda
Negative portrayal
Unintelligence
Hate radio
Prevention
Spreading awareness
Identifying and challenging
dehumanisation (e.g. media & politics)
Early identification of warning signs
Importance of early intervention
Public figures
Dehumanisation: the psychological process of
demonizing a target group, making them seem less than
human and thus not worthy of moral consideration.
Can lead to increased violence, human
rights violations, war crimes and genocide.
e.g. Rwandan Genocide (1994): Hutu-controlled 'hate'
radio station RTLM encouraged Hutu listeners to murder
Tutsi neighbours by referring to them as 'cockroaches'.
e.g. Jews in Holocaust deemed 'inferior' and were
'an alien threat to German racial community.'
Real-World Application: may also
explain violence towards immigrants
Esses et al (2008) demonstrated that individuals high in social dominance orientation (SDO) have a tendency to dehumanise
outgroup members, in particular foreign refugees and asylum seekers. Negative media depictions of refugees cause greater
contempt in high SDO individuals than in low SDO individuals. Negative attitudes become rationalised through 'legitimising myths'
which indicate to high SDO individuals that these groups deserve our hostility because they are somehow less human than others.
Obedience to authority: the tendency to comply
with the commands of those in authority.
e.g. Milgram (1974) believed that the Holocaust was primarily
a result of situational pressures that forced Nazi soldiers to
obey their leaders regardless of personal moral repugnance.
If many participants in his study could administer painful electric shocks
simply because they were instructed by an authority figure, the Nazi
regime would have no problem making soldiers kill innocent people.
Mandel (1998) rejects this claim; Milgram's
account is monocasual (ignores other possible
causes) and does not match historical record.
e.g. Goldhagen (1996) suggests main casual factor in the atrocities
was a form of anti-Semitism so deeply entrenched in German people
at the time that they implicitly condoned the elimination of Jews.