Soc Psy - Key Q

• Key Question

  How can knowledge of social psychology be used to explain destructive obedience in society, such as in a prison setting like the atrocities committed at Abu Ghraib
• Abu Ghraib was a US Army war prison in Iraq where Iraqi soldiers and civilians were detained, abused and tortured during and after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. In 2004, photos of the prison were leaked to the press, where soldiers were seen to be doing atrocious acts to the prisoners
• Prisoners were subject to abuse

  • Rape
  • Sodomy
  • Homicide
  • Torture including pouring acid on detainees
  • Jumping on their bare feet
  • Using military dogs without muzzles to intimidate, terrify and severely injure detainees
• Graphic pictures were released to the media of the torture, showing soldiers posing with abused prisoners whilst smiling and putting their thumbs up
• The soldiers would not act in such ways in their everyday life, as they claimed that they behaved in such was as they were following orders and doing as they were told to do
• Agency Theory


  Soldiers were originally in an autonomous state, accept the role to work at Abu Ghraib, and acting accordingly to their conscience, before being given instructions from higher ranking officers (LAF's) to behave differently. When they received these orders from higher ranking officers to torture Iraqi soldiers + civilians, they surrendered their free will and underwent an agentic shift
• The soldiers acted as agents of the higher ranking officers and tortured the Iraqi's, while deferring responsibility and blaming the higher ranking officers for their own actions
• The American soldiers did not, however, experience moral strain, as they blatantly took images posing with, and mocking the victims
• Social Impact Theory


  The orders to torture Iraqi's came from higher ranking officers who were older than the American soldiers carrying out the orders, so the soldiers may have felt more pressured to obey and torture the Iraqi victims
• Zimbardo claimed that the torture of the Iraqi soldiers was a tragic result of perceived anonymity, an absence of a sense of personal responsibility on the behalf of the American soldiers, and a tacit approval from higher ranking officers