Hitler’s orders

Why German people complied with Hitler’s orders

1. David’s history teacher asked him why so many German people complied with Hitler’s orders to systematically slaughter millions of innocent Jews. David suggested that the atrocities were committed because the Germans had become unusually cruel, sadistic people with abnormal and twisted personalities. Use your knowledge of the fundamental attribution error and Milgram’s research on obedience to highlight the weaknesses of David’s explanation.

2. Research indicates that we often form more positive impressions of beautiful people than of those who are physically unattractive. Explain how advertisements, movies, and children’s fairy tales might encourage this tendency. Use your knowledge of the factors that facilitate interpersonal attraction to suggest how people could be influenced to feel more positively about those who are physically unattractive.

Solution

Why German people complied with Hitler’s orders

1. David’s history teacher asked him why so many German people complied with Hitler’s orders to systematically slaughter millions of innocent Jews. David suggested that the atrocities were committed because the Germans had become unusually cruel, sadistic people with abnormal and twisted personalities. Use your knowledge of the fundamental attribution error and Milgram’s research on obedience to highlight the weaknesses of David’s explanation.

The fundamental attribution error is the tendency for observers, when analyzing another’s behavior, to underestimate the impact of personal disposition (Pg. 527 Textbook). David believes that the German’s personalities were more to blame for the killings than their situations.  This is where he is wrong, as he has to consider the situation they were put into. From page 536 in the text book, one of the reasons why the Germans killed so many was because of obedience. “I was only following orders.”, said Adolf Eichmann, Director of Nazi deportation of Jews to concentration camps (Pg 537 Textbook). They received the orders, so they followed them. In addition to that, anti-Semitic ideology produced eager killers as well (Pg 536 Textbook). Relating to this, Milgram also performed experiments to test how people responded to outright commands. The people in the experiments had to flip a switch to “shock” a person getting the answers wrong. The person giving the answers wasn’t really getting shocked, but the person sending the electric shocks was unaware of that. Almost every participant had no problem sending the slight and moderate shocks. Once the shocks got more intense, and the person receiving the shocks was clearly in pain, some of the people dropped out, refusing to send any more shocks. However, when told they could not stop, and they must keep going, many of them did. The majority of participants continued to obey to the end. This experiment shows how influential someone else’s commands were. David failed to incorporate the German’s situations in the killings. He only attributed the killings to their personalities.

2. Research indicates that we often form more positive impressions of beautiful people than of those who are physically unattractive. Explain how advertisements, movies, and children’s fairy tales might encourage this tendency. Use your knowledge of the factors that facilitate interpersonal attraction to suggest how people could be influenced to feel more positively about those who are physically unattractive.
   
   Few people view themselves as unattractive, except after comparing themselves with super attractive people (Pg 557 Textbook). Advertisements show men and women who look flawless. Also, movies since 1940 portray attractive characters as morally superior to unattractive characters (Pg 557 Textbook). People use this as a standard, when they should not. All advertisements, movies, and children’s fairytales show attractive people. People see these ads and movies, and feel that everyone should look as good as them. People perceive attractive people to be healthier, happier, more sensitive, more successful, and more socially skilled (Pg 557 Textbook). This is inaccurate, as looks can be deceiving. Also, looks don’t affect someone’s personality traits, aside from self-esteem. However, attractive and unattractive people can have high self-esteem. People can be more influenced to feel more positively about those who are physically unattractive by paying attention to what really matters, their personality. By paying attention to one’s positive personality traits, they are more likely to see a person as more attractive. Physical imperfections also become less noticeable if we continuously see someone.

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