Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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millennial hope S 165<br />
Conformity <strong>to</strong> group pressures in combination with uncritical<br />
acceptance <strong>of</strong> authority can be a particularly powerful determinant<br />
<strong>of</strong> behavior, causing people <strong>to</strong> do heinous things <strong>to</strong> each<br />
o<strong>the</strong>r. In a well-known study, psychologist Stanley Milgram put<br />
subjects in situations where ac<strong>to</strong>rs posing as experts asked <strong>the</strong>m <strong>to</strong><br />
deliver progressively higher electrical shocks <strong>to</strong> supposed victims<br />
(1969). Under <strong>the</strong> authority <strong>of</strong> fake scientists, most agreed <strong>to</strong> do<br />
so despite <strong>the</strong> screams and simulated suffering <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> ac<strong>to</strong>rs posing<br />
as victims. In real life <strong>the</strong>re is lots <strong>of</strong> evidence that ordinary people<br />
under duress can behave similarly. But sometimes <strong>the</strong>y don’t.<br />
Elite decision making has its own pathologies. In his study<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Cuban missile crisis, Janis (1972) showed how <strong>the</strong> centripetal<br />
pressures <strong>of</strong> “groupthink” can deform decision making<br />
by narrowing perspectives and limiting <strong>the</strong> permissible evidence<br />
and imagination. In <strong>the</strong> Bay <strong>of</strong> Pigs case, for example, President<br />
Kennedy did not question <strong>the</strong> assumptions made by <strong>the</strong> CIA<br />
and <strong>the</strong> previous administration, and <strong>the</strong> result was a disaster. In<br />
<strong>the</strong> Cuban missile crisis, however, <strong>the</strong> president and his advisors<br />
questioned and fi nally dismissed advice from <strong>the</strong> military and <strong>the</strong><br />
hawks in favor <strong>of</strong> a less provocative and more satisfac<strong>to</strong>ry approach.<br />
The pressures <strong>to</strong>ward groupthink work in every kind <strong>of</strong> organization<br />
as part <strong>of</strong> an internal culture with particular assumptions<br />
and decision-making processes. General Mo<strong>to</strong>rs’ decision <strong>to</strong> make<br />
<strong>the</strong> Hummer (while Toyota developed <strong>the</strong> Prius) perhaps refl ects<br />
similar dynamics in which obvious questions were not asked and<br />
better information was ignored.<br />
It is well documented that pressures such as resource scarcity,<br />
drought, extreme heat, and crowding increase social tensions,<br />
leading <strong>to</strong> violence and genocide against minorities. In hard times,<br />
authoritarianism fl ourishes as people prefer order over civility and<br />
civil liberties. Building on <strong>the</strong> earlier work <strong>of</strong> Theodore Adorno<br />
(Adorno et al., 1950), Robert Altemeyer has extended our understanding<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> authoritarian personality. It is highly submissive <strong>to</strong><br />
established authority, inclined <strong>to</strong> associate only with like-minded