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From: Jon Abolins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040513/6198410s.htm Abuse less shocking in light of history In right conditions, many could descend to brutality. It has happened before. By Rick Hampson USA TODAY <rest of the article snipped> Comments: The article includes a brief synopsis of two experiments in human behavior that touch upon prison guard psychology. One is the very famous experiment by Stanley Milgram in the early 1960s. Milgram set up an experiment where the subjects were given orders by an authority figure to give what were thought to be ever more painful and powerful electric shocks to other subjects. The shocks and the "recipients'" reactions were fake. The test subjects assigned to administer the shocks obeyed the authorty. The other was a less well-known experiment by Philip Zimbardo in the 1970s. Zimbardo set up an experiment where student volunteers ran a mock prison, some posing as guards and others as inmates. Unlike Milgram, Zimbardo gave very few orders. As the USA TOday articles describes the results: <<< Quickly, the guards became more and more abusive, the inmates more and more cowed. At night, when Zimbardo was gone, guards put bags over inmates' heads, stripped them of clothing and told them to simulate sex acts. Finally, after several inmates suffered emotional breakdowns, a shaken Zimbardo stopped the experiment after six days. He concluded later that he himself had gotten swept up in the situation and didn't see what was happening until it was too late. ''You could never even try that today,'' he says. ''You'd be sued.'' While Milgram's study stands for the proposition that most good people will sometimes follow bad orders, Zimbardo's suggests that sometimes good people don't even need bad orders -- none or vague ones will do. >>> J.D. Abolins --- / o o \ PNEWS Topic Specific Portals (Vortals) ===OO=====OO================================================= http://pnews.org/vortal/ New World disOrder and Myth Busters http://g0lem.net/vortal/ Insane Planet and Wacko World http://g0lem.net/portal/ Bad-Ass Truth and TheGolemsPortal http://pnews.org/portal/ Naked Truth and PNEWS Portal ============================================================= \_/ \_/
