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In what has become known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, a handful of bright and optimistic university students were transformed in just six days into a gang of sadistic prison guards who were determined to "break" their fellow classmates. So when, in 2004, Zimbardo saw bags placed over the heads of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison and them being subject to humiliating and abhorrent torture, he immediately saw the parallels. "Many of the pictures that were shown were similar if not more extreme than what the guards did to the prisoners in my experiment," he said. To prove his point, Zimbardo went back to his original experiment and transcribed the dialogue between guards and prisoners for his new book, The Lucifer Effect. The lower basement of Stanford University was transformed into a prison and individuals were selected at random to play either prisoners or guards. Prisoners were stripped naked to be deloused by guards who began what Zimbardo calls the "degradation process" by mocking their genitalia. When he sought an early exit Zimbardo, acting in his position as prison superintendent, offered him better treatment in return for playing snitch on his fellow prisoners. In order to "up the ante" the guards became increasingly sadistic and started to wake the prisoners in the middle of the night to perform menial tasks, such as cleaning the toilet with their hands. As he talked to Zimbardo about wanting to leave he could hear prisoners behind him chanting "Prisoner 819 did a bad thing". I am a psychologist not a prison superintendent, and this is not a real prison."

Read the full story at Epoch Times

Posted Under: Abu Ghraib