tive process." Moreover, even when they come to realize that their actions are incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the wherewithal to resist authority. Many teachers even when convinced of their wrongness against inflicting pain to the learner protested while still obeying the experimenter. They could not make an open break with authority. Some reduced the stress by a brief shock to the learner. Thus handling the conflict by "asserting their humanity" was easier than defiance (Behrens & Rosen, 2000). Was the German soldier "asserting their humanity" when they would at point-blank range shoot a Jew in the head? Were they sparing the Jewish person pain form torture or were they again reducing dissonance? Social influence and conformity can prove to be disastrous and such was the case in WWII with the Holocaust. Conformity pressures in group decisions proved to be tragic in Adolf Hitlers case. The circle around Hitler was one of total conformity and deviations was not permitted because those who defied Hitler received the same fate as the Jews.. The activities of genocide seemed reasonable due to the absence of dissent which created an illusion of unanimity. In Hitlers view no other options existed. The holocaust matters because when "Birds of a Feather Flock Together" then conformity, obedience, and compliance within that group must be observed due to norms established in order to ensure the success of the group. Ordinary people of all walks of life are susceptible to acts of terror when they assume subordinate roles as Milgram revealed. But they are also subject to cognitive dissonance when they perform actions they know to be immoral but comply anyway because of the sense of obligation to the group. We group in order to compare information, but when dissent is suppressed and members support polices that are ill-considered then ordinary people will again follow like sheep....
