Psychology Professor Catherine A. Sanderson on How to Get Rid of Hazing
The Conversation – “Understanding the psychological processes that lead them to misperceive what those around them are actually thinking is the first step in helping students speak up in the face of bad behavior,” Sanderson writes. “The next—and crucial—step is to shift norms about what group loyalty means.”
Sanderson is the Poler Family Professor of Psychology and chair of psychology at Amherst. Her most recent book is 2020’s Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels. In this essay, she describes a tragedy at her son’s college: a student who had been drinking sustained a head injury and later died because his friends delayed seeking help. She relates this story to other “problematic behavior in group settings” such as fraternity hazing.
One reason people fail to intervene in bad behavior, the professor explains, is pluralistic ignorance, wherein a “majority of people privately believe one thing” (i.e., that the behavior is wrong or risky) “but incorrectly assume that most others feel differently” (i.e., that the behavior is nothing to worry about). Another reason is that loyalty drives them to keep quiet, lest reporting the behavior get their friends in trouble. Sanderson suggests a better understanding of loyalty: “Being a good friend, fraternity brother, or teammate means speaking up, not staying silent.”