The New York Times > Science > God (or Not), Physics and, of Course, Love: Scientists Take a Leap: "Philip Zimbardo
Psychologist, emeritus professor, Stanford; author, 'Shyness'
I believe that the prison guards at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, who worked the night shift in Tier 1A, where prisoners were physically and psychologically abused, had surrendered their free will and personal responsibility during these episodes of mayhem.
But I could not prove it in a court of law. These eight Army reservists were trapped in a unique situation in which the behavioral context came to dominate individual dispositions, values and morality to such an extent that they were transformed into mindless actors alienated from their normal sense of personal accountability for their actions - at that time and place.
The 'group mind' that developed among these soldiers was created by a set of known social psychological conditions, some of which are nicely featured in Golding's 'Lord of the Flies.' The same processes that I witnessed in my Stanford Prison Experiment were clearly operating in that remote place: deindividuation, dehumanization, boredom, groupthink, role-playing, rule control and more." What an article. thanks again mefi.
Psychologist, emeritus professor, Stanford; author, 'Shyness'
I believe that the prison guards at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, who worked the night shift in Tier 1A, where prisoners were physically and psychologically abused, had surrendered their free will and personal responsibility during these episodes of mayhem.
But I could not prove it in a court of law. These eight Army reservists were trapped in a unique situation in which the behavioral context came to dominate individual dispositions, values and morality to such an extent that they were transformed into mindless actors alienated from their normal sense of personal accountability for their actions - at that time and place.
The 'group mind' that developed among these soldiers was created by a set of known social psychological conditions, some of which are nicely featured in Golding's 'Lord of the Flies.' The same processes that I witnessed in my Stanford Prison Experiment were clearly operating in that remote place: deindividuation, dehumanization, boredom, groupthink, role-playing, rule control and more." What an article. thanks again mefi.
