social psychological variables that influence behaviour

While completing my concept map for the Genocide Blog, I thought about how some of the key variables (such as ingroup/outgroup bias, prjudice, stereotypes and propaganda) that influenced the genocide in Rwanda exist in other societies including our own. For example, since 9/11 the Australian federal government has targeted people of middle eastern appearance through advertising campaings that have been used extensively in the media to request that Australians report anyone or anything that they think may be related to terrorism. The government has also used its own discretion to deport someone on the grounds of association with terrorists, even though the law did not support their actions. And finally, politicians such as Pauline Hanson has argued extensivley in the public forum that those of middle easter appearance are not welcome in Australia.

Though such actions have been taken in Australia and elsewhere, shaping peoples attitudes and creating disharmony in society, these variables have not caused the mass destruction that they have in countries like Rwanda. So, why does genocide occur in some countries and not in others when the social psychological variables that influenced the genocide exist in other societies as well?

One possible explanation is "political and psychological splitting of subject populations" (du Preez, 1997). According to du Preez, political splitting occurs when national identities are fragile and, rather than identifying as a whole, the nation is broken up into ethnic, racial and religious factions. Political splitting particularly occurs when one group within the nation as a surrogate power to dominate others based on racial superiority. For example, in Ceylon Britain used the Tamil to rule the Sinhalese, and in Rwanda Begium use the Tutsis to rule the Hutus (du Preez).

Du Preez (1997) argues that genocide cannot occur without political splitting. While this may be the case, there are other elements that occur in conjunction with political splitting that make the decision to commit genocide possible. For example, genocide becomes possible when surrogates loose power, are blamed for the misfortunes of others, and become vulneralbe to the actions of those who have replaced them (du Preez). Genocide also becomes possible when economic failure or war. War is important in terms of enabling genocide to occur because it allows for secrecy and permits strong measures to be taken by the current ruling party (du Preez). Finally, genocide can only be possible if the government in power is genocidal by nature because, "[w]ithout a genocidal party, there will be no genocide"(du Preez, p. 248).


Reference

du Preez, P. (1997). In Search of Genocide: A Comparison of Rwanda and South Africa [electronic version].