Agents of Death: Explaining the Cambodian Genocide in Terms of Psychosocial Dissonance

A. Hinton

DOI:10.1525/AA.1996.98.4.02A00110

Corpus ID: 144294189

Agents of Death: Explaining the Cambodian Genocide in Terms of Psychosocial Dissonance

@article{Hinton1996AgentsOD,
  title={Agents of Death: Explaining the Cambodian Genocide in Terms of Psychosocial Dissonance},
  author={A. Hinton},
  journal={American Anthropologist},
  year={1996},
  volume={98},
  pages={818-831}
}

A. Hinton

Published 1996

Sociology

American Anthropologist

Analyzing the Cambodian genocide, this article proposes that the concept of psychosocial dissonance (PSD) can be fruitfully used to understand how individuals come to commit genocidal atrocities. PSD arises when salient cultural models that motivate behavior in contradictory ways (such as the injunction to kill versus prosocial norms) come into conflict. Both the genocidal regime and given individuals will take steps to reduce such PSD. Agents of death are created during the ensuing conversion… CONTINUE READING

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