Both sound a bit like role-playing and acting. Especially the high school situation. Similar things routinely happen during the antifa and BLM riots from a couple summers ago. Here's an article from 4 years ago where antifa started directing traffic in Portland: https://apnews.com/article/04cf8aabbee571a6c891ad45b1452862 Other people at these events decide to become "security" so that they can order people around. Generally, they like to seize authority that they don't have as they likely enjoy the feeling of having control over others. As I mentioned earlier, people in groups often behave differently than when acting alone. Another recent example of that is the flash mob robberies where groups of people storm a store and do smash and grab. Although the mob give them some cover and makes it easier to blend in, the simple act of other people doing the same things can make people feel that the behavior (although they deep down know it's wrong) is easier to justify. The old saying, "if your friend jumped off a bridge, would you do it too". Same reason that it's easier to drive 20 mph over the speed limit if everyone around you is doing it too. It's true that people do tend to behave like others around them. If 5 people face backwards in an elevator, next person getting on would probably do it too...if for no other reason than to keep an eye on the crazy people. If just one person on the elevator and facing backwards, that's just a crazy guy. But might be a good idea to keep an eye on him anyway. I can kinda see why people might go to the Roman colosseum to watch others get eaten by animals. I'm guessing that there likely was a social pressure to do it and the people could at least somewhat justify it by convincing themselves that they were not contributing to the murder -- the people would get eaten anyway whether or not they were there. Also, the people were supposedly bad (although I think a lot of innocent Christians also got eaten so it was religious persecution). But operating the ovens is far worse because to do that, one must actively participate in the evil. I don't see how someone could justify sending some innocent little girl like Ann Frank to a painful horrible death. Although I tend to look down on the masses and generally how people behave in groups, I still believe that all humans have a conscience and deep down have a sense of what is objectively right and wrong although they may not choose to listen to it. I think that most people could not actively participate in killing the Jews as many Nazis did although many Germans were capable of passively supporting the killing. If I am wrong on that, then it's because I had far too much faith in humanity, not because I tend to believe that many humans succumb to complacency, mediocrity, laziness and possibly degeneracy at the worst.