Appropriations of Social Psychological Studies in Genocide Research Exemplified by References to Solomon E. Asch’s Study of Independence and Conformity

Abstract

ABSTRACT It seems to have become an unquestioned standard in genocide research to abbreviate a very limited number of mainly social psychological studies to help explain that individuals commit violent acts in the context of collective violence. This exemplary review of adaptations of Solomon E. Asch’s studies on independence and conformity hopes to reveal some fundamental problems of supposedly transdisciplinary genocide research and beyond: (1) Asch's originally very elaborate arguments are seriously abbreviated; (2) especially the scope of Asch’s experimental research is not sufficiently contextualized as (3) are his psychological findings, a problem that (4) can be associated with a lack of references to the discussions in the disciplines consulted. These observations do not merely apply to the case under discussion but hint at fundamental problems of inter- or transdisciplinary research on violence.