PRESENTATION 4

To review the CONFORMITY QUIZ CLICK HERE
 

Solomon Asch's classic study on conformity to group influence (S. Asch, "Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgments," in H. Guetzkow (ed), Groups, Leadership and Men. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press, 1951) is particularly disturbing since nearly all respondents make private correct judgments "matching lines".

The film Obedience is over 30 years old but it is still chilling. The book that describes these studies is S. Milgram, Obedience to Authority. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.

The video is expensive ($332 with shipping) but is now available after having been out of print for several years. Contact information is:

                                    Penn State Public Broadcasting
                                    201 Wagner Building
                                    University Park, PA 16802-3899
                                    814-865-3333 extension 265

Check your local community college, university, or public television station to see if you can rent or borrow a copy too. It's worth the trouble to find the original, not the TV movie. Another film that summarizes Obedience and the Haney, Banks and Zimbardo study (see below) is also not as good.

How wearing white hoods and other social processes foster anti-social, destructive behavior is referenced in Philip Zimbardo, "The human choice: Individuation, reason and order versus deindividuation, impulse and chaos." In W.J. Arnold and D. Levine (eds.) Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 1969. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

The classic study of how Stanford University students were randomly assigned to play "prisoner" and "guard"--and became so immersed in their roles that destruction and chaos ensued is C. Haney, C. Banks and P. Zimbardo, "Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison." International Journal of Criminology and Penology, 1973, 1: 69-97. It can be referenced in Philip Zimbardo's film Independence, distributed by Pennsylvania State University. The researchers discontinued the study quickly, and days before it was scheduled to be completed, because these students "lived" their roles so thoroughly.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo is immediate past President of the American Psychological Assocation. Visit his Web site for more information about these studies. CLICK HERE

This site includes a .pdf file Dr. Zimbardo's 2003 article: The Political Psychology of Terrorist Alarms

To see a slide show of the Haney, Banks and Zimbardo study online, CLICK HERE

Dr. Zimbardo’s brand new book: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (Random House, 2007) promises to be one of the most cogent in this area. It incorporates 30 years of systematic research. Check out the website which leads you through dehumanization and other mechanisms that can make a tragedy like the Holocaust possible:   http://www.lucifereffect.com

J. Donelson Forsyth’s terrific and comprehensive WEB site details many group processes. There is also a link to publisher information about Forsyth’s excellent book, Group Dynamics (fourth edition) which includes chapters about intergroup relations and why casual contact alone across groups in ineffective. See it here:

http://www.richmond.edu/~dforsyth/gd/

Are certain "types" of people more likely to engage in hate crimes? How does personality intersect with social conditions to predispose individuals to hate? Robert J. Sternberg edited The Psychology of Hate (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association) in 2005. Its chapters juxtapose a “pure” social psychological explanation (situation) with possible personality factors that may contribute to various forms of hate crimes. (See http:www.amazon.com for used copies.)

CLICK HERE

It's way too simplistic to think of Nazi Germany in terms of "bullies." However, the dynamics of bullying do give us insight about how many individuals in Nazi-held territory or in the camps felt they could behave--and that no one would probably stop them. Events such as the Columbine shootings have also brought bullying to the forefront. A solid resource on causes, effects, and dealing with bullying can be found HERE.
 
 

PRESENTATION 4

HOLOCAUST INSTITUTE 2008

TO CONFORMITY SURVEY

Constructed by Susan Carol Losh
Department of Educational Psychology
    and Learning Systems
Florida State University
Tallahassee FL 32306-4453

June 20 2008
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Florida State University's Holocaust Institute