Mental Imagery Associated with Acts of Obedience and Disobedience Among Former Genocide Perpetrators and Rescuers

The history of nations is plagued by horrendous acts of obedience that have caused wars and the loss of countless lives (Zinn, 1997). Such examples have not only been observed in military personnel during wars; civilians are also capable of atrocious acts when following authoritative figures (Straus, 2004). For instance, the Genocide Against the Tutsis was characterized by a high number of civilians joining the Interahamwe militia, the Hutu militia believed to be responsible for the 1994 genocide. Fortunately, history also offers several examples of individuals who risked their lives by resisting orders to save others (Andre & Platteau, 1998). However, it remains largely unknown why some individuals resist immoral orders while others obey them. To address this question, the present project uses social neuroscience, focusing on mental imagery associated with acts of obedience or disobedience, whether fictive or that truly happened. Uniquely, instead of focusing solely on a convenience sample, this project will recruit former genocide perpetrators and rescuers in Rwanda. This approach will allow us to explore whether these two populations, who differed in the extent of their behavior during the same genocide, display similar patterns of brain activity during the imagination of acts of disobedience or obedience.