In addition, groups have the power to suppress dissent and, thus, encourage the abandonment of the individual self. In doing so, groups provide a moral audthority that can give individuals sufficient justification to perpetrate extraordinary evil (Waller, 2002, 34).
A group, interacting in isolation from moderating influences, becomes prgressively more extreme than the sum of its individual memebers (Waller, 2002, 35).
We must accept the fact that group dynamics can, to some extent, alter the thougths, feelings, and behaviors of individualswithin a group (Waller, 2002, 48).
We must also accept the fact, however, that being in a group does not inevitabily lead us to commit acts of extraordinary evil that we "would never dream of doing as individuals." Being in a group reveals who individuals are just as much, if not more, than being in a group alters who they are.
Waller, James. (2002). Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Oxford University Press, New York.
