Question

In viewing the documentary, Genocide: Worse than War, think about the work of Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo, what do their psychological experiments suggest to us about human nature, obedience to authority, and authoritarian behavior in relation to the act of genocide and the perpetrators of this horrible act?

Now, given the level of narcissism involved in the men who have historically led such atrocities, what similarities do we see in serial killers like Ted Bundy or cult leaders like Jim Jones?

Answer 1

Reviewing the experiments from both Stanley and Zimbardo, it can be understood that human nature or behavior is more aggressive than expected. It can be understood from both experiments that a group of participants in both experiments who were either given authority or were asked to obey authority showed 100% leniency towards their working commitment without any sign of empathy towards the opposite group of candidates. This is the same fact we observe in genocide incidents in parts of Germany also, where it was a psychological reflection that was a combination of both narcissism and obedience to authority.

The lack of empathy and emotion for the sufferers is the one which we can observe in all of them in common whether it be genocide or be serial killers. Both Narcissistic personalities as well as psychopaths have an emotional disorder associated with empathy. All acts done by both groups are meant for self satisfaction and for self desire without thinking from the standpoint of the victim.