According to the Stanford Prison Experiment, Dr. Zimbardo believes that the Lucifer Effect explains how ordinary people become evil in reaction to the situation in which they were placed. He believes that what happened in Abu Ghraib could be explained by the experiment in 1971. Therefore, the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib is caused by the conditions in the prison. In other words, it is the barrel that corrupts, not the human nature.
The Sanford Prison Experiment seems to parallel the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, yet what happened in Abu Ghraib still differ from the experiment. The experiment selected people with sound mental condition while some of the soldiers in Abu Ghraib were contractors without such guarantee of sound mind and least tendency toward violence. By holding psychological test, the experiment controls the personality as a variable and reduced its effect. In real life, personality still accounts for the events. The conclusion of the Stanford Prison Experiment somehow implied the bad apples theory. According to the slides, there are three types of guards. Some guards never punished prisoners, while others dehumanized prisoners in a hostile way. One situation resulted in different reactions. Bad apples still matter.
Nevertheless, the Stanford Prison Experiment echoes with Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. The situationist theory of Dr. Zimbardo states that the situation determines one’s behavior. US government creates a situation of prison without adequate supervision and transparency, and allows a group of people who lack of proper training of interrogation skill to work in Abu Graib. This is a bad barrel that could induce the evil of bad apples.
The Sanford Prison Experiment seems to parallel the prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, yet what happened in Abu Ghraib still differ from the experiment. The experiment selected people with sound mental condition while some of the soldiers in Abu Ghraib were contractors without such guarantee of sound mind and least tendency toward violence. By holding psychological test, the experiment controls the personality as a variable and reduced its effect. In real life, personality still accounts for the events. The conclusion of the Stanford Prison Experiment somehow implied the bad apples theory. According to the slides, there are three types of guards. Some guards never punished prisoners, while others dehumanized prisoners in a hostile way. One situation resulted in different reactions. Bad apples still matter.
Nevertheless, the Stanford Prison Experiment echoes with Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse. The situationist theory of Dr. Zimbardo states that the situation determines one’s behavior. US government creates a situation of prison without adequate supervision and transparency, and allows a group of people who lack of proper training of interrogation skill to work in Abu Graib. This is a bad barrel that could induce the evil of bad apples.
3 comments:
You make a good point in looking at both the "barrels" and the "apples."
I agree with you that, when the structure of the prison administration and the directions given to the staff are lacking, those individuals who are predisposed to violence, cruelty, etc, are given free rein to do what they want, because they can get away with it. So a solution would need to focus on both parts of the picture.
However, how do we explain why people who were not predisposed to cruelty became violent towards prisoners? How does one's dark side come out? And how does the military prevent this? Following the ICRC reading, changes need to be focused on the institution to reduce individual's "moral disengagement."
It seems fitting to suggest that the conditions in Abu Grhaib are resonsible for the actions of the prisoners. It also makes sense to suggest that there was something inherent within the character of the MPs that allowed Abu Ghraib to bring it out of them. Though it does not seem fair to say "I did it because of the environment" without taking personal accountability. If Abu Ghraib didn't bring this part of their personality out, would some other unsavory situation have done so?
Still, it does seem consistant with some of what was heard in the film - the MPs were talking about how the longer they were there, the more the prison got to them. How creepy and hot and desolate the place seemed. Could drive any sane person crazy. But drive any sane person to torture? Who knows.
The Lucifer Effect was actually really interesting reading. Thanks for posting that!
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