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...
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…
