Marie Helweg-Larsen wrote:
Traditionally, I don't think we think of the "power of the situation"
as including explicit instructions from superiors on how to act
abusively.
Perhaps not "traditionally," but I don't see why not. The opposng view
here is that people act in accord with their "nautral" personalities,
dispositions, etc. If moral control were "internal" then an "authority"
telling you to do immoral things should not cause you to do them. The
whole point of the externalist (i.e., social) line is that it is not
what kind of people we are, but what kind of situation we are put into
that exerts (the most) control over our behavior. Even if Zimbardo has
explicitly said "strip them, hose them down, call them humiliating
names, and lock them in the closet," he still got a bunch of otherwise
ordinary university students (actually, quite exceptional university
students, considering they were at Stanford) to do things most people
(who hadn't heard of Asch or Milgram) would have predicted that they
would refuse to do.
Regards,
--
Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada
416-736-5115 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo
=============================
Christopher D. Green wrote:
Mike Palij wrote:
...to what extent is the SPE a reflection of the "power of the
situation" instead of the failure of authority to properly control
its agents?
How is the "failure of authority to properly control its agents" NOT
an aspect of the "power of the situation"? It seems to me that lack
of explicit control from authority figures wouls, for many people,
constitute implicit permission to do more or less whatever one wants,
especially if a specific goal (e.g., "break them") is specified by
that same autrhority figure. You don't really think that people would
behave well toward each other if there WEREN'T laws, police, courts,
prisons, etc., do you?
Regards,
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