On Killing: the psychological cost of learning to kill in war and society*

Abstract

In this chapter, the author shows that the majority of men on the battlefield would not attempt to kill the enemy, even to save their own lives or the lives of their friends. Prior to Second World War it had always been assumed that the average soldier would kill in combat simply because his country and his leaders had told him to do so and because it was essential to defend his own life and the lives of his friends. S. L. A. Marshall was a United States (US) Army historian in the Pacific theater during Second World War and later became the official US historian of the European theater of operations. The three major psychological processes at work in enabling violence are classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and the observation and imitation of vicarious role models in social learning. The entertainment industry conditions the young in exactly the same way the military does.