Joe somebody: the social origins of collective violence

This research examines factors that lead ordinary people to commit extraordinarily evil acts in war, genocide, and collective violence. The paper examines the development of moral sentiments within human cultural groups, and examines their impact on the individual operating within such a Culture of Cruelty. The moral sentiments of perpetrators are contrasted with those of rescuers, focusing particularly on rescuers of Jewish persons in Nazi-occupied Europe. Rescuers demonstrated a strong sense of acceptance, expressed in universal and expansive sentiments of sympathy towards others. Rescuers tended not to hold sentiments of victimization, hatred, or repugnance towards target groups, and evinced a strong sense of personal conscience, with an integrated and centroverted personality.