Yup. Prison experiment that went awry.
I forget the name. Basic textbook shit.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
People (that aren’t psychopaths or sociopaths) are very good at individually being empathetic to other members of their in group, that haven’t broken their ideological rules. However, even normal, empathetic people can shut off their empathy when people of a certain group belong to another out group, or are dehumanised (eg ‘well dark skinned people aren’t really human like light skinned people are, so it’s fine to enslave them’) or if they break your moral code (eg ‘well they’re gay, so it’s morally justifiable to kill them’)
MyDogLovesMe@lemmy.world 1 week ago
hypna@lemmy.world 6 days ago
That experiment has been pretty thoroughly discredited.
db2@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I think the name is America. We became the dumping ground when Australia told England to get fucked.
SalamenceFury@lemmy.world 1 week ago
TBH I think this is more of a conditioning thing. Like, very young toddlers (up to like, 5-6 years old) literally cannot understand racism. This is actually lampshaded in Wolfenstein II, when BJ just talks to a black girl and tells her about all the shit his father says about her race but he straight up says he doesn’t understand his reasons at all.
shalafi@lemmy.world 1 week ago
(I’m replying to you and the post you’re replying to, if that makes sense.)
Racism is a single aspect of in and out groups. We didn’t evolve to work in groups of more than 150, maybe 200 individuals max. People of any skin tone can be in my Monkeysphere, but if they’re outside of it, they’re somewhat less than human, less real. No one is above this.
I’m sure I’ll get comments from people who think they are above it. “Fuck you, you inhuman monster! I value ALL human life equally!” Nah, no one does.
cracked.com/article_14990_what-monkeysphere.html
Plenty of research out there, aside from what’s included in the article. The author is mostly explaining Dunbar’s Number.
M1ch431@slrpnk.net 6 days ago
You make valid points, but I feel the truth lies in between your comment and the people in the chain that you are responding to.
shalafi@lemmy.world 6 days ago
If the truth is in between, it’s because we’re arguing different view points. I think everyone in this chain gets it, but we’re meandering a bit. Great conversation!
masterspace@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
This video does a good job breaking down the core of the truth of why and how altruism arises, and why not everyone is altruistic:
youtu.be/XX7PdJIGiCw
The reality is that evolution and the natural world does not care about individuals, or groups, or species. It is selecting for genes and genes dont give one flying fuck about anything other than whether they help more copies of themselves exist in the world. Sometimes that’s altruistic, sometimes it’s not.
shalafi@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Out of time for a video than long, but you can bet I saved it! Love examining how we hominids came to be, how we came to behave. So many arguments as to how we “should” act clash with how we “evolved” to act. Untangling “should” vs. “is” would take us farther than arguing about ideal behavior.
Aim for a better world keeping in mind as it is, not how it should be. Am drunk. Making sense?
masterspace@lemmy.ca 6 days ago
Some hate, at least reactionary hate to circumstances, is inherent in humans, otherwise it wouldn’t be here.
Who taught us hate if not us?
shalafi@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Recharacterize hate and anger as fear, human behavior makes more sense.
Yeah, racism is taught, as OP’s talking about, but fear of the other, the other outside our tribe, is genetic.
People take that opinion to mean racism is natural. Nope. It’s not skin color, it’s “other”. It’s a big world now, too big for us to easily parse, so we try to break each other into manageable chunks we can understand, skin color is an easy shortcut.
For example; I’m a middle-aged, American white guy. I understand, and am far closer, to my black friend down the street than I am to any European, even one who looks exactly like me. My friend is in my tribe, my Monkeysphere, the European is not. Despite wildly different backgrounds, I share more in common with my friend than a random Spaniard. Does that make sense?