Stanford Prison Experiment

I) The Stanford Prison Experiment was similar to the events at Abu Ghraib because of the poor conditions faced by the residents of the prisons. The guards had to work long shifts and deal with high-stress situations for which they had no formal training. The prisoners were humiliated and dehumanized as well as taunted. Some people would make the fundamental attribution error and blame the events solely on the gurads' personalities, but the situation is responsible. Even the ones who knew it was wrong conformed. The major difference that I see between the two is that the torture at Abu Ghraib was more severe. This is to be expected, as the Stanford Experiment had a controlled environment (... sort of). Another difference is the amount of pleasure the guards got out of torturing their prisoners. Though a third of the guards at Stanford got pleasure out of their authority, the guards at Abu Ghraib seemed to get pleasure out of the torture itself. The images of smiling guards with bloody, naked prisoners speak for themselves.

J) The guards were upset that the experiment was over because they got a rush off of their power. They enjoyed having so much control over another human being and once you have that kind of authority, it's hard to give it up. Also, the guards had a strong group identity and experienced ingroup biased. Had it not been for thinking defetcs like groupthink, someone may have spoken up and stopped the experiment before it really started.