Abstract

In September 1857, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints massacred emigrants traveling through southern Utah to California. The perpetrators, who were also members of the Cedar City militia, slaughtered one hundred and twenty men, women, and children. They only spared seventeen young children. Historians have written at length about this event. In this paper, I analyze the Mountain Meadows Massacre through the perspective of social-psychological constructs. In particular, I use the constructs of human motivation, moral disengagement, group behavior, and obedience to authority to help provide further understanding regarding how seemingly ordinary Christian people committed such an atrocity. In doing so, I argue that the perpetrators’ atrocities can be attributed to both situational and dispositional factors. The historical record demonstrates that social-psychological, situational, and dispositional forces had a strong influence on the perpetrators and their actions. These findings show that most of the perpetrators of the massacre were not bloodthirsty killers, but normal people who made terrible decisions in a complicated situation. These findings should remind us that our choices matter, and it is up to each one of us to resist situational and psychological influences that can lead to mass violence.

Degree

College and Department

Religious Education

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/