{"id":3361,"date":"2026-08-09T09:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/?p=3361"},"modified":"2026-08-09T09:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T13:27:13","slug":"could-i-have-become-one-of-them-what-ordinary-men-taught-me-about-human-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/2026\/08\/09\/could-i-have-become-one-of-them-what-ordinary-men-taught-me-about-human-behavior\/","title":{"rendered":"Could I Have Become One of Them? What Ordinary Men Taught Me About Human Behavior"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the most unsettling lessons I have learned in the Trauma and Crisis Intervention course is that acts of pure evil and malice are not always committed by malevolent people. Before reading Christopher Browning\u2019s Ordinary Men<\/span><\/i>, I found it easy to believe that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were fundamentally different from others, that they were uniquely cruel or inherently evil. Browning\u2019s historical analysis challenged that assumption by presenting <\/span>Reserve Police Battalion 101 <\/span><\/i>as a group of ordinary, middle-aged German men who gradually became active participants in mass murder. Rather than leaving me with simple answers, the book forced me to ask an uncomfortable question: could ordinary people \u2013including myself\u2013 be influenced by similar social pressures under different circumstances?<\/span>
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\n<\/span>The social psychology research we explored in Module 5 helps explain why Browning\u2019s conclusions are unsettling. Stanley Milgram demonstrated that many people are willing to obey authority figures, even when those orders conflict with their own morality. Philip Zimbardo\u2019s <\/span>Stanford Prison Experiment<\/span><\/i> further demonstrates how quickly typical people can internalize social roles and adapt their behavior to fit the expectations of a situation. Browning argues that Zimbardo\u2019s findings are especially relevant because the men of <\/span>Reserve Police Battalion 101 <\/span><\/i>were not simply following direct orders. Many individuals gradually adapted to their roles as they became desensitized to violence, even volunteering for more violent tasks. The transformation was not immediate; it occurred through conformity, peer influence, and the normalization of cruelty rather than just unquestioned obedience. <\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>While reading these works, I had found myself thinking about Marina Abramovic\u2019s 1974 performance, <\/span>Rhythm 0.<\/span><\/i> During the performance, Abramovic stood motionless for six hours while audience members were told they could use any of seventy-two objects on her however they wished with no consequence. What started with harmless interactions gradually escalated into physical violence, as participants observed others crossing the line of morality. By the end of the performance, audience members had cut her clothing, damaged her skin, and even held a loaded gun to her head. Although <\/span>Rhythm 0<\/span><\/i> is not comparable to the Holocaust in scale, intent, historical context, or severity it demonstrates a similar psychological phenomenon: when accountability is diminished and harmful behavior becomes normalized within a group, ordinary people may begin acting in ways they never imagined possible.<\/span>
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\n<\/span>What connects Browning, Milgram, Zimbardo, and Abramovic is not the claim that people are intrinsically evil. Instead, they collectively suggest that human behavior is profoundly influenced by social environments, authority, group norms, and perceived responsibility. This realization is unnerving because it shifts the conversation away from identifying \u201cbad people\u201d and toward recognizing the conditions that allow harmful behavior to emerge. At the same time, these works also remind us that some individuals resisted. A small number of Battalion 101 members refused to participate in the Jozefow massacre despite the social pressure surrounding them. Their actions indicate that situational influences are powerful but not absolute.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As someone pursuing a career in psychology and criminal justice, I believe this may be one of the most important lessons of the course. Understanding how ordinary people became capable of devastating harm is not about excusing these perpetrators, but about recognizing warning signs before they escalate into violence. It also highlights the important of cultivating moral courage. The willingness to question authority, resist harmful group norms, and recognize the humanity in others even when doing so is difficult. If we continue believing that atrocities are committed only be people fundamentally different from ourselves, we risk overlooking the social conditions that make such atrocities possible. In that sense, Browning\u2019s Ordinary Men is not only a history of the Holocaust but a warning about the potential that exists within every society and within every one of us. <\/span>
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\n<\/span>References:<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Abramovi\u0107, M. (1974). <\/span>Rhythm 0<\/span><\/i> [Performance].<\/span><\/p>\n

Browning, C. R. (1992). <\/span>Ordinary men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland<\/span><\/i>. HarperCollins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. <\/span>Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67<\/span><\/i>(4), 371\u2013378.<\/span> https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/h0040525<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). <\/span>The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil<\/span><\/i>. Random House<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most unsettling lessons I have learned in the Trauma and Crisis Intervention course is that acts of pure evil and malice are not always committed by malevolent people. Before reading Christopher Browning\u2019s Ordinary Men, I found it easy to believe that the perpetrators of the Holocaust were fundamentally different from others, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26276,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[52,49,54,51,53,50,55,7],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26276"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3417,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3361\/revisions\/3417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}