on people unexpectedly turning out to be awful
Lately I've been thinking about a phenomenon that I've observed numerous times over the years and wondering if there's research on it. In peaceful times, most people seem to be able to live amongst each other and get along reasonably well with their neighbors. However, in times of strife -- whether it's political tension, armed conflict, some kind of natural disaster, etc. -- there will always be a certain set of people who take that as either implicit or explicit permission to treat other people horribly. It's not possible to tell how many people will do this, nor which ones; often, they turn out to be folks you thought you liked (even loved) and trusted, and vice versa.
It's a different phenomenon, I think, from the obedience revealed by the Milgram experiment, where participants were induced to inflict pain (or so they thought) on subjects because they were told by authority figures to do so. I'm talking about people who seem to turn from decent human beings into gleeful sadists nearly overnight, once they have received that implicit (as in some kind of breakdown of the normal social order) or explicit permission (as in a leader giving outright encouragement) to do so. In modern times, I've watched it happen in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, as well as in countries hit by major earthquakes or other disasters. Meanwhile, other people don't seem compelled by this impulse at all, but instead are appalled by their family, friends, and neighbors who appear to have suddenly lost the plot.
I don't know why this happens, but I've at least decided to call it what it is: stochastic cruelty.
It's a different phenomenon, I think, from the obedience revealed by the Milgram experiment, where participants were induced to inflict pain (or so they thought) on subjects because they were told by authority figures to do so. I'm talking about people who seem to turn from decent human beings into gleeful sadists nearly overnight, once they have received that implicit (as in some kind of breakdown of the normal social order) or explicit permission (as in a leader giving outright encouragement) to do so. In modern times, I've watched it happen in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, as well as in countries hit by major earthquakes or other disasters. Meanwhile, other people don't seem compelled by this impulse at all, but instead are appalled by their family, friends, and neighbors who appear to have suddenly lost the plot.
I don't know why this happens, but I've at least decided to call it what it is: stochastic cruelty.