SOCA02H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Hawthorne Effect, Nigger, Conflict Theories
Document Summary
Ch 6 networks, groups, bureaucracies, and societies. The conventional answer is that many nazis were evil, sadistic, or deluded enough to think that. Jews threatened the existence of the german people: therefore the innocents had to be killed. Yes it is far from the whole story. Sociologists emphasize 3 other factors: norms of solidarity demand conformity. For example, many of the nazis who roamed the polish countryside to shoot jews often did not hate or have qualms with the people they systematically slaughtered. They simply developed deep loyalty to one another: thus they committed atrocities partly because they wanted to maintain group morale, solidarity, and loyalty. They were quite normal and just wanted to sustain their friendship ties. It also shows that separating people from the negative effects of their actions increases the likelihood of compliance: bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority. The nazi genocide machine was effective because it was bureaucratically organized.
