Psychologists call for greater attention to role of peers
and superiors in prison scandal
Courtesy Princeton University and World Science staff
When news broke about the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, many people
questioned: who could do such a thing? According to Princeton University
psychologists who reviewed decades worth of studies, the answer is: anyone.
Writing in the Nov. 26 issue of the research journal Science, researchers
contend that many forms of behavior, including acts of great evil, are
influenced as much by authority figures, peer pressure and other social
interactions as by the psychology of the individual.
“Could any average 18-year-old have tortured these prisoners?” said professor
Susan Fiske, one of the researchers. “I would have to answer, ‘Yes, just about
anyone could have -- unfortunately.’”
Fiske and her colleagues, two graduate students, drew their conclusions from a
range of studies involving 8 million participants. The studies examined how
factors, ranging from the stress of war to the expectations of superiors, can
combine to cause ordinary people to commit seemingly inexplicable acts.
“Ordinary people can engage in incredibly destructive behavior if so ordered by
legitimate authority,” Fiske and colleagues wrote, referring particularly to
landmark studies conducted by Stanley Milgram in the early 1970s. Milgram showed
that normal volunteers would deliver what they understood to be lethal electric
shocks to other people when they were told that it was a necessary part of
carrying out an experiment. “Subordinates not only do what they are ordered to
do, but what they think their superiors would order them to do, given their
understanding of the authority’s overall goals,” the researchers wrote.
When discussing the Milgram experiment in classes, Fiske said, students swear
they would never behave the way the study subjects did. “But when they are put
in similar experiments, they do,” said Fiske.
Fisk noted that there are cases of isolated individuals who torture other
people. However, it is more likely that the abusers at Abu Ghraib were
conforming to the culture and expectations of their environment than violating
them, she said. The incidents occurred within a very hierarchical organization;
the abusers had no particular background to suggest they would behave
outrageously; and the abusers asserted they were following orders and documented
what they did.
“Society holds individuals responsible for their actions, as the military court
martial recognizes, but social psychology suggests we should also hold
responsible peers and superiors who control the social context,” the researchers
wrote.
The reasons for abuse go beyond simple adherence to authority. “The situation of
the 800th Military Police Brigade guarding Abu Ghraib prisoners fits all the
social conditions known to cause aggression,” the researchers wrote. “The
soldiers were certainly provoked and stressed, at war, in constant danger,
taunted and harassed by some of the very citizens they were sent to save, and
their comrades were dying daily and unpredictably. Their morale suffered, they
were untrained for the job, their command climate was lax, their return home was
a year overdue, their identity as disciplined soldiers was gone and their own
amenities were scant. Heat and discomfort also doubtless contributed.”
At the same time, the Iraqi prisoners were part of a different societal group
that was seen by Americans as threatening cherished values. The more that people
see others as “interchangeable members” of a different group, rather than as
unique individuals, the more their behavior is influenced by parts of the brain
associated with alarm and disgust, the researchers wrote. Fiske and colleagues
recently conducted their own surveys showing that similar feelings arise in less
extreme situations: U.S. citizens surveyed, on average, “viewed Muslims and
Arabs as not sharing their interests and stereotyped them as not especially
sincere, honest, friendly or warm.”
The point of looking at the complex social and psychological forces behind the
Abu Ghraib abuse is not to excuse people from responsibility for their actions,
but to develop a scientific understanding of what causes evil actions so they
can be better prevented, the researchers said. “People’s hunches are to look at
the individual for the reasons, but as a society we can’t afford to do that,”
said Fiske. “People who are in charge of other people on a large scale, whether
CEOs or military officers, need to know the conditions that produce evil
behavior. The conditions are not that complicated. And if they can be
understood, then they can be prevented in large part.”
One of the most effective ways to prevent abuse is for members of different
groups to have positive contact with each other, which is one reason why it is
important for Iraqi soldiers to train and fight with Americans, Fiske said.
Another step, Fiske said, would be for the military to ensure that soldiers have
alternate means of communication, such as military chaplains or other
semi-independent figures, so they can voice deep concerns without violating the
chain of command. The goal is not to eliminate obedience and conformity, which
can spur acts of heroism as well as evil. The researchers wrote that
firefighters who rushed into the World Trade Center were obeying orders and
conforming to the culture of their organization in addition to displaying
individual bravery and self sacrifice. The conduct of war itself requires
obedience and conformity, Fiske noted.
Indeed, authority and social pressure can be tools for combating abuse. Fiske
said that her experience in consulting with industry on racial and gender
discrimination suggests that leadership is critical for good behavior throughout
an organization. “I do think the CEOs are responsible for the atmosphere in the
company,” she said. “If the CEOs say, ‘It’s really important that we do things a
certain way,’ they can have a real impact.” However, focusing blame on a “few
bad apples” will hinder the social and cultural changes necessary to prevent
further abuses, Fiske said.
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