Abu Ghraib

• Prison in Iraq guarded by American soldiers
• In 2004 there was a public outcry as pictures and descriptions of torture published in media
• Examples of torture - beating with bats and threatening dog attackss

Blind Obedience - obey orders against moral code - soliders did this at the prison

Milgram:

• Participants were willing to harm through electris shocks when given an order from authority figure
• Soliders would obey orders to torture form an authority figure
• Participants distress as went against moral code but still continued with study like soldiers

Milgram Agency Theory

• Soldiers are trained to be agents of authority and society
• As solider were in agents following authority fiures were not in an autonomous state
• Didn't feel responsible as followed orders and in agentic state

Social Identity Theory

• US soliders = in group, prisoners= out group
• In group has past of mistreating out group
• To establish social identity, soliders accepted the groups norms and values of abusing prisoners
• Soldiers want to promote interests of in group over the out group