Are good people capable of evil?
Millions of Germans and other Europeans participated in the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of six million European Jews (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2024). Most of those who participated in this genocide during World War II justified their actions by saying that they were ordered to do so by their superiors. Were millions of Germans and other Europeans born evil, and seeking to enjoy the deaths of others, or were their evil actions due to other factors? Using this case of genocide, this essay will discuss authority as a reason for evil, as well as propose other possible factors that make people commiting evil actions. Although many philosophers have proposed many theories to explain the concept of evil, in this essay, “evil” actions refer to genocides, mass murders, tortures, and other horrible acts that the word wrongdoings cannot adequately describe.
One of the reasons good people do evil may be obedience to authority figures. From a young age, people are told to listen to authority figures like parents or teachers, and this creates a tendency to follow authority figures when they grow up. “But when we go to school, we disobey teachers all the time. If teachers tell us to stab our classmates, do we stab them too?”, one may ask. This depends on many factors such as the tense of the situation, the credibility of authoritative figures, the likelihood of being punished for disobeying, our relationship with classmates and teachers, or the reactions of those around us. In his 1961 experiment, Milgram attempted to explain the influence of authority on people’s evil actions, and the factors that affect the level of obedience.
The experiment involved participants acting as teachers administering electric shocks ranging from 15 volts (slight shock) to 375 volts (severe shock) to 450 volts (XXX) as requested by the researcher whenever the student gave an incorrect answer. When asked about the percentage of people who continued until the end, on average, introductory psychology students answered between 0 and 3%, while professional psychiatrists answered less than 1% (Hyman, 2017). Surprisingly, however, 65% of participants continued to administer shocks until the highest level when asked by researchers to continue. The participants in the experiment were just normal people in a normal psychological state, but they were capable of committing evil actions to people they do not know and have no grudge against when being told for 4 US dollars. So is even the most ordinary person born evil and is capable of killing others given the right conditions? According to Milgram’s agency theory, the experiment has showed that people have two states of behaviors in social situations: autonomous – when they take responsibility for their actions, and agentic – when they act according to the wills of others, and let others take responsibility for what they do (McIeod, 2023). The two conditions for a person to enter the agentic state are that the authority figure must be legitimate and capable of giving orders, and that they will take responsibility for the action. In variations of this experiment, Milgram also demonstrated the influence of several other factors on the level of obedience. When the commanding person was not an authority figure (the credibility of the authority figures), the obedience rate decreased (McIeod, 2023). When the experiment was announced as being conducted by private research firms rather than the prestigious Yale University (the credibility of authoritative figures), the obedience rate decreased. The same was true when there was another person in the room objecting (the reactions of those around us), when participants had to directly see the reactions of the learners, or when the request was made remotely (our relationships with and direct contact with authority figures). On the other hand, the rate increases when participants are the ones making the request rather than the ones directly pressing the button.
This experiment has also received many critics. One of them is that participants did not believe that Yale University would actually conduct such a cruel experiment, and that no harm was actually caused, according to Perry in 2013. However, in my opinion, this also demonstrates trust in Yale University as an authoritative figure. Participants trust the ethics and uprightness of a prestigious figure like Yale University, but what if one day Yale actually conducted an evil experiment, and participants still believed in the ethics of the university? Could it be that during the Holocaust, the German army also followed leaders’ orders because they believed that their leaders were doing the right thing?
Of course, comparing the killing of classmates in the classroom, or an experiment, to German society under Hitler is unfair. However, it also shows the influence of surrounding factors on the legitimacy of authority figures and the tendency to follow their orders. For example, a teacher suddenly ordering students to kill their classmates one day might make students try to rebel against the teacher, whereas in a society where killing Jews has become the order, and it is the matter of kill or get killed, standing up to authority figures seems to be a much harder task.
Another reason for evil that was also mentioned as a factor affecting the level of obedience in Milgram’s experiment is the state of being ingroup. According to Trafton, being in a group can make people more likely to harm those outside the group (2014). This is explained by the fact that an individual in a group often feels more anonymous and less likely to be caught when doing something wrong. In addition, when in a group, they might place the benefit of the group higher than their individuality. In the case of the German army, because of the Nazi propaganda, they believed that the Jews were abnormal and inferior to them, and it is for the greater good that they eliminate the Jews. The fact that they were superior and in control, while people of the other group were abnormal, made it easier for them to commit evil acts against people of the other group. Besides, the pressure from people around them also performing those actions can also make them feel the need to perform those actions.
In addition to authority and group, other reasons given to explain this phenomenon are the concept of banality of evil by Arendt, in which good people perform evil acts because they are just doing their job; the traumas they have suffered, especially in war; or mental disorders.
In conclusion, it is not impossible for good people to commit evil acts. Given the right condition, they may place certain things above personal morality such as authority, group benefits, or responsibility.
References
Hyman, I. (2017). Good People, Evil Actions. Psychology Today. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/mental-mishaps/201702/good-people-evil-actions?amp
McIeod, S. (2023). Stanley Milgram Shock Experiment. Simply Psychology. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html
Trafton, A. (2014). When good people do bad things. MIT News. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://news.mit.edu/2014/when-good-people-do-bad-things-0612
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (2024). Introduction to the Holocaust. Holocaust Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 23, 2024, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust
