The news about Abu Ghraib isn’t too suprising if you remember a few key experiments in Social Psychology.
Milgram and Obedience to Authority
Stanley Milgram conducted a famous experiment on obedience to authority shortly after WWII which seemed to show that two-thirds of the public are willing to administer 450V electric shocks to people taking part in an experiment. Milgram’s study was a careful setup; the true experimental subjects were the people administering the electric shocks and the supposed victims were actors colluding with Milgram.
Milgram’s study was repeated by others before ethics committees began to consider the experiment unethical. The figures for those willing to deliver lethal electric shocks vary but Milgram’s original 66% stands up well.
Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment
Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment randomly allocated student volunteers to the roles of ‘prisoner’ and ‘guard’ in a mocked-up prison in the basement of a lab at Stanford University. The experiment had to be ended prematurely after 6 days (it was planned to last 2 weeks) because of the violent and abusive behaviour of the guards.
Zimbardo’s experiment would not now get past the ethics committees; not so long ago Zimbardo said he thought there might to room to conduct similar experiments in reality tv shows and he has advised on at least two shown in the UK.
Both Zimbardo’s and Milgram’s experiments - and the work of Asch on conformity - show that people conform, are obedient to authority and will do nasty things if asked. It’s been known for a long time now. In the words of Milgram:
…stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.
