So I read this book called "The Wave" and it was great.
A history teacher was asked by a student how the Nazis could do what they did (concentration camps and all) but the teacher has no answer to it. He says that the people who were doing those horrible things said that they were "just following orders" or that "if they disobeyed they'd be killed". However there's much more to that.
[SPOILER]
The teacher then decides to do an experiment with his students but it goes out of control and a movement called "The Wave" is created (Which can be compared to the party). More and more people start joining the movement and the border between experimentation and reality becomes increasingly blurred ... Based on a true story btw.
So now, to get to what I'm trying to say here, In your opinions, WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES (AND THE MISTAKES OF THOSE BEFORE US)?
Thing is, how can they know if what they're doing will change the world for the better? There is no way to tell the concequences for their actions.
An example of this would be if we could go back in time and stop Hitler. I mean, people would think that would be a good think to do right? He killed millions of people, I'm sure there are people who'd like to give him some of that pain back. So, we go back in time and stop Hitler. We shoot him (or do something else to stop him from doing what he did) before he can make his move.
See, the thing is, if we do this, there's no way of telling if it would be good or bad. I mean Hitler could've been the better option cuz there could've been a worse Hitler if we had stopped him. + Because of Hitler we can now learn of history and try not to repeat the same mistake, no?
Scientists used to waterboard animals to test their dive response, or less scientifically known as the "master switch of life". and they figured out all about the dive response, but it happened for everything not just marine mammals...we even have it.
I've actually seen this example quite a lot. In Psychology this is referred to as the "Agentic Shift". What it simply means is that an individual may see themselves as an "agent" carrying out wishes of another person, and so they do not point blame on themselves. So the "Nazis" may have just seen themselves as agents carrying out orders from hitler etc etc. I agree with it to an extent. You can search up on it if you want, and there are other reasons why people may obey.. such as "Justification" which an example of is "What we're doing here will change the world for the better" and such. It makes sense.
As for your question, it's important to understand human behaviour because it allows you to appreciate and comprehend. That in its own should be a sufficient answer.
Yeah I know of it. Doctor tells people to keep going and they do and most of them take it to the highest lvl just cuz it's a Dr. telling them to do so for the experiment.
Well Hitler didn't believe he was doing anything wrong. In fact, he believed that what he was doing was for the good of humanity. In order to prevent this kind of behavior from happening again we would have to essentially condition people to have a set of morals, and since humanity can't really agree on that it doesn't seem likely (my opinion)
I've been thinking about this myself. Like, what if there's another Charles Whitman, but instead of Charles Whitman he's another guy. Like another name and everything and no one ever would even see him coming. It's real messed up that they'd let everyone know about the first Charles, because like the next guy's gonna snipe people even harder. It's scary stuff.
Then again if we were to educate the "wrong" people about this, they could end up using it for their advantage and become the next Hitler. Tbh, I wouldn't find that too surprising.
