Psychology and Fear

Psychology of Fear Management One true tale of horrific prison abuse comes from Abu Ghraib, where guards tortured and psychologically damaged a number of prisoners. In talking about the issues and atrocities that occurred there, the Stanford Prison Experiment was mentioned. The takeaway was how the experiment can and should always serve as a reminder that people can change very drastically when they are put in a particular situation.

Most of the guards at Abu Ghraib did not have any past disciplinary problems, anger issues, or other concerns that would have made them unfit for the job they were doing.

They were, as much as anyone can be, "normal." Despite that, they tortured and harmed other people, because they had the opportunity to treat others as though they were "less than." It is not possible to say whether every person who had this opportunity would do the same thing, but it is relatively easy to see that it is not terribly uncommon for it to occur between those who have power and those who do not.

People who want to understand why this kind of abuse takes place are looking for a way to make sense of something that really does seem senseless. They want to find ways to see what causes people to act like that, so they can avoid those things in the future. If they are able to find something that makes a person "act out" to that level, they may be able to keep that person from ending up in that environment.

The problem, however, is that it is not just one person or one environment that produces these kinds of results. There are many reasons why a person could end up acting that way, and many types of situations into which that person could be placed that would cause the type of reaction seen in the experiment and at places like Abu Ghraib.

To get to the bottom of the issue, then, people must consider what it is about the specific environment that causes people who would otherwise treat people with kindness to become so focused on humiliating and torturing people over whom they have power. It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is the reasoning behind democracy instead of dictatorship, for example. When people are given free rein to use power over other people, many if not most will eventually abuse that power.

It may not be so much deliberate as it is just something they realize they can get away with doing. In other words, they do not set out to be deliberately cruel, but there is something fascinating about having that type of control over another human being. Knowing that one is in power, and that others must do what they are told or face the consequences, can be a life-changing experience.

Others who get involved in this type of situation see the people over whom they have the power as being less valuable, and sometimes they are even viewed as animals. By seeing people this way, and dehumanizing them, it becomes easier for the mind to justify mistreating them and even torturing or harming them. With Abu Ghraib, and with the Stanford Prison Experiment, it can be seen that there is much more to the psychology of human beings than was first assumed.

By any standard measure, the people involved in both incidents were good people who were just living their lives. Then they were given excessive.