ABSTRACT
This chapter examines individual decision-making in genocide. It argues that individuals’ perceived options are bounded by the society in which they live, their role within that society, and the immediate context of perpetration. This immediate context is influenced by factors such as the presence of authority figures, conformity, distance from the victim, perceived threat, intoxication, and emotional arousal. Individuals act based on limited information within an environment of seemingly restricted options.
Material, physical, and moral incentives and risks also play a role in influencing individual decision-making. High-propensity individuals (those with low self-control, high moral disengagement, and proximity to other perpetrators) may believe that the risks of participation are minimal, while also valuing incentives for participation. Low-propensity individuals (those with high self-control, low moral disengagement, and distance from other perpetrators) may not highly value incentives for participation, but they will participate anyway, out of fear of the risks of not participating. The result is that some low-propensity individuals participate, and most high-propensity individuals do also. Finally, it argues that the individual decision to perpetrate genocide is also shaped by the perceived preferences of other actors.
