key question

• What is the social psychology key question?

  why did the holocaust happen
• The holocaust

  • act of genocide that took place during ww2 by Hilter and the nazi regime, by compelling the German population to conform to Hitler out of fear
  • teaches society about the consequences if following orders from a higher authority figure when being scared to
• The holocaust- Milgrams research

  Links to the key question as it proves that people are willing to obey orders even if the consequences are fatal. His variation experiment 13 less people obeyed when the experimenter appeared of less authority.

  • 100% of participants administrated a fatal shock of 300v
• The holocaust- agency theory 


  members of German population had transferred into the 'agent shift' when joining the nazi army. leading to following orders from those of higher authority no longer acting for themselves. May have caused moral strain
• The holocaust- realistic conflict theory

  Competition arises in Germany as living conditions became very low- money and jobs. which increased hostility between one anther making it easier to blame the Jews for these conditions. Hilter offered a solution to Germanys issues
• The holocaust- social identity theory

  The three stages can explain the ways in which Germany became taken over by Hitler:

  • categorisation. This is howling who is jewish
  • Identification. Following orders from Nazi's
  • Comparison. Germans deserve more than the jews