collective crime collective responsibility
“State of affairs” is inspired by reality-show “Traitors” and Venice Biennale 2026. For several months, I was completely absorbed in watching the Polish edition of show, transfixed by the compelling characters. Presenting unique opportunity to watch in vitro social experiment, it touched the very core of my interest in the group as an organism, where the obvious logic of choices fades and a paradoxical blindness takes hold.
Both studies reveal important insights on how social situations influence behavior, especially regarding conformity, obedience, and power dynamics.
- Asch Conformity Experiment (1950s). In this study, participants were shown a line and asked to match its length to one of three comparison lines. Confederates (actors) in the group intentionally gave wrong answers. The key finding was that many participants conformed to the group’s incorrect answer, even when they knew it was wrong. This showed that people often lie or go along with a group to avoid standing out or facing social pressure.
- Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) by Philip Zimbardo. In this study, participants were randomly assigned roles as either guards or prisoners in a simulated prison environment. The experiment demonstrated how quickly people adopt power roles and how an imbalance of power can lead to abusive behavior and dehumanization. The guards, given authority, often acted harshly, while prisoners became passive or distressed.
The overall finding across many studies is that groups can:
- increase dishonesty (through conformity and reduced accountability),
- or reduce dishonesty when strong ethical norms are established,
- groups often rewrite memory collectively,
- People conform to avoid: embarrassment,
isolation,
conflict,
social rejection. They may privately disagree but publicly comply.
- Uniforms, group identity, and anonymity reduced personal accountability.
- When one group controls: rules,
punishment,
information,
movement,
social status,
abuse can emerge surprisingly quickly.
- Guard behavior escalated partly because guards reinforced one another socially.
Cruelty became normalized within the group dynamic. - conformity,
obedience,
authority,
group pressure,
moral disengagement.
From the point of law group crime is ranking higher than individual crime - acting within an organized group often leads to severe punishment, including harsher sentencing rules compared to crimes committed individually.
Philosophers and international relations scholars often treat states as "corporate moral agents." Because states are organized communities, they are capable of large-scale violence that individuals cannot commit alone, suggesting the entity itself is responsible.
resaerch
https://journals.law.harvard.edu/ilj/2017/04/state-responsibility-for-aggression-a-human-rights-approach
collective crime collective responsibility
