Ervin Staub
Healing and Reconciliation in Bosnia Require the Help of Bystanders

Ervin Staub is professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He was born in Hungary, but received most of his higher education in the United States. He received his Ph.D. at Stanford University, taught at Harvard University, and was visiting professor at Stanford, the University of Hawaii, and the London School of Economics and Political Science. Since the late 1960's, he has been conducting research on and developing a theory about the personal and social determinants and development of helping and altruism, and about passivity in the face of others' need.

Since the early 80's, he has also been writing about the origins of human destructiveness. His book "The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence" (Cambridge University Press, 1989) explores the roots of the Holocaust, other genocides and mass killings, as well as the origins of torture and war, and the evolution of caring and nonaggressive persons and societies.

He has also explored the origins youth violence, including reasons for its recent increase in the United States, and of mob violence. His most recent co-edited book, in part reporting his work on blind and constructive forms of patriotism, is "Patriotism in the Lives of Individuals and Groups" (Nelson Hall, in press).

He has lectured widely on the topics of his work and applied his work to public issues and concerns (e.g., police violence, racism, the war with Iraq, child rearing) by creating a training program, following the Rodney King incident, for all police officers in the State of California, to reduce the use of unnecessary force by police; through teacher training aimed at understanding and reducing violence and promoting prosocial behavior in schools, in part through the organization Facing History and Ourselves, and in other ways.

The current focus of his work is in four general areas:

• Raising caring and nonviolent (as well as effective and happy) children, both by creating "caring schools" and by training adults in developing knowledge and skills, as well as helping them transform, so that they can do what is required to raise such children.

• The prevention of genocide, in part by activating "bystander nations" to respond to the beginnings of violence against groups of people, in part by developing ways to heal victimized groups, thereby to break the cycle of violence, and in part by working on ways to overcome hostility between historically antagonistic groups.

• Basic human needs and their role in the evolution of optimally functioning persons, that is, persons who continue to develop and grow so that they can fulfill their human and personal potentials.

• As a part of all this work and a continuation of all his previous work, a concern with the role of bystanders, with their passivity and potential impact.