Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- 44 Changing Cultures and Society
- 45 Transforming the Bystanders: Altruism, Caring, and Social Responsibility
- 46 Blind versus Constructive Patriotism: Moving from Embeddedness in the Group to Critical Loyalty and Action
- 47 Manifestations of Blind and Constructive Patriotism: Summary of Findings
- 48 The Ideal University in the Real World
- 49 Conclusion: Creating Caring Societies
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
45 - Transforming the Bystanders: Altruism, Caring, and Social Responsibility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- PART I INTRODUCTION AND CORE CONCEPTS
- PART II THE ROOTS OF HELPING OTHER PEOPLE IN NEED IN CONTRAST TO PASSIVITY
- PART III HOW CHILDREN BECOME CARING AND HELPFUL RATHER THAN HOSTILE AND AGGRESSIVE
- PART IV THE ORIGINS OF GENOCIDE, MASS KILLING, AND OTHER COLLECTIVE VIOLENCE
- PART V THE AFTERMATH OF MASS VIOLENCE: TRAUMA, HEALING, PREVENTION, AND RECONCILIATION
- PART VI CREATING CARING, MORALLY INCLUSIVE, PEACEFUL SOCIETIES
- 44 Changing Cultures and Society
- 45 Transforming the Bystanders: Altruism, Caring, and Social Responsibility
- 46 Blind versus Constructive Patriotism: Moving from Embeddedness in the Group to Critical Loyalty and Action
- 47 Manifestations of Blind and Constructive Patriotism: Summary of Findings
- 48 The Ideal University in the Real World
- 49 Conclusion: Creating Caring Societies
- Appendix: What Are Your Values and Goals?
- Index
Summary
the passivity of bystanders
People often remain passive both in the face of the mistreatment of groups of people, such as discrimination, torture, mass killing, and genocide, and in the face of events in their society that harm or endanger everyone, such as the destruction of the environment or the nuclear arms race. Socially responsible action is both similar to and different from helping and altruism directed at individuals. To the extent it derives from a feeling of responsibility, its focus is the social good, which includes one's own good but extends to one's group, other groups, and possibly all of humanity. Some of our knowledge of bystander passivity comes from researchs on emergency helping and some from analyses of the psychology of perpetrators, bystanders, and heroic helpers in genocides and mass killings.
Type I Bystanders: Passivity in the Face of Mistreatment and Violence
There are two categories of Type I bystanders. Those who witness the mistreatment of members of a group of their own society but remain passive are internal bystanders. They may accept demands by the perpetrators that they participate in the persecution, even gradually joining the group. Their silence and their semiactive role often encourage the perpetrators. For example, in Nazi Germany most Germans participated to a greater or lesser degree in the system the Nazis established. They boycotted stores, owned by Jews, broke off relations with Jewish friends, and so on.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Psychology of Good and EvilWhy Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others, pp. 489 - 496Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003