It's being mentioned a lot...The Stanford Prison Experiment

[Khephra]

so in case you need background info:

http://www.prisonexp.org/

[Politicub]

1. That's a well done site

Very instructive about how sadastic people can become when in a position of control over others.

[madeuplikebowie]

4. Yeah that experiment

was the first thing I thought of when I saw those pictures. You give someone too much power and they go crazy with it.

[bhunt70]

8. I was amazed at the way both the guards and prisoners acted.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. And then there is this....

http://designweb.otago.ac.nz/grant/psyc/OBEDIANCE.HTML

[Khephra]

3. There's also a good German film that's a fictionalized account

"Das Experiment" (2001)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250258/

[Politicub]

5. I love the web

There's never been another time in history when so much information was at the fingertips of so many.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. Here's a sociologist's take on why Abu Ghraib happened despite spin:

"In the current situation, we must not allow the politicians and pentagon to dismiss the seriousness of what happened with the usual dispositional analysis of a few bad apples in a good barrel. Bush said it should not reflect on the good nature of all Americans or our military.

Wrong. The situational analysis says the barrel of war is filled with vinegar that will transform good cucumbers into sour pickles and will always do it to make the majority of good people, men and women, into perpetrators of evil, where there is:

anonymity-deindividuation, dehumanization, secrecy, diffusion of responsibility, social modeling, big power differentials, frustration, feelings of revenge,and obedience to authority.

[Merlin]

9. Absolutely right. The Bushies eliminated all rules of conduct...

...when Rumsfeld announced long ago that the Geneva Conventions no longer apply to the US. The instituted NO ALTERNATIVE RULES OF CONDUCT.

Compounded by the demonization of Iraqis by the Bushies and the media, these torture abuses were inevitable.

[proud patriot]

7. Wow that was interesting

Amazing how all sides lost their identities
in the experiment