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.
