I’ve been reading about the massacre at Mountain Meadows on September 11, 1857. South Utah Mormons disguised as native Americans and their Paiute allies laid siege on a wagon train from Arkansas. The 5 day siege culminated in the murder of about 120 individuals, including men, women, and children. Mormon militia promised safe passage to the company now low on food and water and got the group to comply with their instructions, the weapons were discarded, men were separated from the women and children. Then all the party but 17 young children were slaughtered. Their livestock and property were seized and the bodies buried in a shallow mass grave. It is horrifying to read of these events. Attempts to justify what happened are just as appalling.

I interpret this story as a cautionary tale that shows even good people do bad things. We all bear both good and evil fruit. Any of us are susceptible to being drawn into doing horrific things to others. I hope that recognizing and trying to understand the factors involved can help prevent them from recurring.

Why do good people do bad things? I’m thinking primarily about how an otherwise peaceable upstanding citizen can be driven to violent acts. To better understand the social psychology involved, I have also reviewed the Milgram experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment. Here are the factors I compiled:

Authoritarianism. The leader is perceived to be ‘good’, respected, and legitimate. Hierarchy may smother individual morality as followers willingly comply with direction, feeling that the authority figure will take responsibility for their actions. Proximity of the leader can affect obedience.

Dehumanizing others. Creating an “enemy” or “us vs. them” ideology. Labeling or demonizing others (calling them animals, criminals, etc.)

Dehumanizing self. Filling a role to the point that the role becomes the identity. Get a feeling of anonymity (sometimes by wearing a uniform, mask, hood, or face paint). Mob mentality takes over, feeling of power over others, lose individuality, minimize individual responsibility (uniform or appearance can also give more status/power to the perceived authority).

Ambiguous expectations of leadership. Unclear instructions, inconsistent enforcement of rules, lack of supervision, no training and no accountability.

Ideology justifying beliefs/actions. This can include relabeling situations or people to legitimize a system of beliefs. Ideologies that create an unwavering certainty of one’s own moral rightness or superiority can contribute to violent behavior.

Mental state. Those experiencing stress, fear, boredom, exhaustion, deprivation/poverty, are more susceptible to suggestion.

Violent environment and/or rhetoric. This includes incremental steps toward the commission of a harmful act start with something more trivial steps and slowly become more malignant. Aggressive acts may be labeled as deserved or even as ‘helping’ the victim.

Peer pressure. This provides a strong deterrent to dissent. Individuals surrounded by models of social compliance are less likely to speak out. Exiting the situation could be difficult or dangerous.

Many of these factors contributed in the case of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. I feel like the best bet to avoid being caught up in a moral disaster is to be on guard with these points.

Be careful about who you follow. Rather than surrendering moral authority to a leader, choose your own actions, and claim responsibility for the results of those actions. Encourage others to do the same.

Listen carefully and be on alert when you hear others being dehumanized or labeled. Be wary of messages proclaiming certainty or superiority. Maintain openness to the possibility of being wrong on any given issue.

Maintain a distinction between yourself and the roles you fill. Remember who you are. Maintain your individuality and identity without succumbing to the lure anonymity, which is often also a lure to behaving badly.

Expect clear instructions from those in leadership, regulated enforcement of rules, appropriate supervision, training, and accountability.

Listen and pay attention when ideologies are used to justify inappropriate actions. Pay attention to how stories are retold, and see if they are reframing it in a dishonest way to justify persecuting an ‘other’.

Be mindful of your mental state. If you are feeling stress, fear, boredom, exhaustion, or other deprivation, recognize that you are more susceptible to suggestion. Try to care for yourself so you will not be in that state long, and be wary of those that would influence you when you are vulnerable.

Pay attention to violent rhetoric. Question statements that say anyone is deserving of violence done to them.

Be wary of negative peer pressure, and remember it can also work for good. Remember that others will also be more likely to disobey authority when they see it done. Your act of noncompliance may change the tide.

Sometimes we feel powerless to affect change. When we see injustice, we cringe, but don’t feel like we can do anything. Even speaking up on a small-scale can sometimes touch hearts. This is a small, silly thing, but I saw a meme posted by my husband’s aunt recently that referred to certain people as ‘illegals’. I was about to unfollow her on Facebook because I felt like that was a hateful thing to post. I have personally been heartbroken about immigrant families being separated from their children. Instead of quietly unfollowing, I wrote “I don’t like seeing people referred to as “illegals”, I feel like it is dehumanizing.” I was scared. I knew any of my husband’s family might see what I wrote. Later in the day I checked back to see what people were saying about it. She had taken down the meme! I am not sure whether her feelings had changed, but my feelings about my ability to make a difference (however small) did change.

Speak up as a voice of reason. When you see these risk factors, draw attention to them. Speak up to support morality. Don’t suppress your conscience to avoid being seen as a ‘troublemaker’ or to ‘fit in’. Be willing to speak dissent when necessary to correct problems in society. You can do so lovingly and truthfully. Jesus spoke up for the persecuted, not the leaders and lawgivers, not even the law.

Notes:

The Mountain Meadows Massacre – Juanita Brooks

Massacre at Mountain Meadows – Walker, Turley, & Leonard

Psychologist Stanley Milgram’s experiment demonstrated that those given an order (by someone in a perceived position of authority) delivered what they believed to be extreme levels of electrical shock to other study participants for answering questions incorrectly. https://simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, a group of male college students were assigned roles of prisoners or guards. The guards quickly became brutal and abusive toward prisoners, disregarding the potential harm of their actions on their fellow students. “You don’t need a motive,” Zimbardo said. “All you really need is a situation that facilitates moving across that line of good and evil.” http://www.prisonexp.org/

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