Social Psychology & Nazi Germany

Conformity Dr. David Myers defines conformity as

“adjusting one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard.”

Asch study

Zimbardo – Power of the Situation clip [6:22-7:15]

Asch study 18 sets of lines

12 times confederates answer incorrectly

RESULTS:

76% of people conformed at least once

50% of people conformed at least three times

Factors: Conformity No strong prior opinion

Experimenter/authority makes subject feel insecure

Importance of belonging to a group

Size of group (3 or more)

Unanimous group

Pressure from group

Respect for social expectations

Conformity and the Nazi state

 Some commitment to anti-Semitism

Punishment by authorities for not following through

Group membership crucial

Large groups = more conformity

Seems to be unanimity (not 100%, but strong)

Pressure from peers to conform

Respect for social order/standards = high

Milgram study

Majority of participants go to 450 volts

“Just following orders”

Why subjects obeyed Taught to!

Trust the experts

Conflicting norms

Small steps – increments go up slowly

Can’t undo past behavior – follow through with experiment

Fast experiment – not making the best decisions

Variations: Milgram’s study

Factors: Obedience Perception of authority

Separation from victim

Closer supervision by authority = more obedience

Models of obedience

Gender, age, education ARE NOT RELEVANT

Obedience and the Nazi state

Totalitarian state

Distance to victim varied, but still obedience was high Many perpetrators worked in mobile killing

squads or extermination camps

Constant threat of authority watching

Surrounded by obedient peers

Diffusion of responsibility – “just following orders”

Conflicts: Milgram study Many perpetrators reported enjoying their

work – in Milgram’s study, participants uncomfortable

Jews attacked point-blank – in study, physical proximity decreased obedience

Perpetrators followed through on orders even if commander wasn’t present – but in study, obedience decreased when authority was distant

Stanford Prison Experiment

Philip Zimbardo

Mock prison setting: would people change to fill their assigned (perceived) roles?

Zimbardo – Power of the Situation clip [12:25-18:43]

Factors: Assigned Roles

Normal students acted the way they thought prison guards would behave; prisoners behaved as they thought prisoners would behave in that situation

Sadistic behaviors within the first few days – a 2 week experiment canceled after 6 days

Zimbardo himself got lost in his role as warden

No one rebelled against prison system

Power of the Situation

“We exaggerate the extent to which our actions are voluntary and rationally chosen- or, put differently, we understate the power of the situation. My claim is not that individuals are incapable of criminal culpability; rather, it is that, like the horrible behavior brought out by my experiment in good, normal young men, the situation and the system creating it also must share in the responsibility for illegal and immoral behavior.”

-Philip Zimbardo, 2007

Assigned Roles and the Nazi State

Men with no police or military experience were assigned as executioners or guards

Three types of guards (like in Prison Experiment) Sadistic

Focused on duty

Lenient

Essentially no one rebels against this system

Power of the Situation

"The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act.”

- Stanley Milgram,1974