The universal applicability of the theory of neutralization: German youth coming to terms with the Holocaust: An empirical study with theoretical implications

An empirical examination of people who never transgress legal or moral codes, yet who experience tension resulting from conflict of inner norms & resort to neutralization techniques to prevent cognitive dissonance, based on interview data from 40 German youths born after WWII who had a sense of shared responsibility for the crimes committed under the Nazi regime. The findings show that to overcome the conflict between the humanist values they profess & the memory of the Holocaust, the youths employ the neutralization techniques used by delinquent boys described by Gresham M. Sykes & David Matza (see SA 7:1/595239) -- denial of injury, denial of responsibility, denial of the victim, condemnation of the condemner, & appeal to higher loyalities -- which are in accord with sociopsychological cognitive consistency theory. The analysis also shows that Sykes's & Matza's theory of neutralization, which can be applied to nondelinquents & to situations not involving guilt, elucidates how people restore cognitive consonance without attitude change. Two universal modes of dilemma resolution -- through abstraction & relativization -- are briefly discussed. Adapted from the source document.