That's a very good point. The analogy to Milgram is one I thought of
right after sending my note. If we think of Zimbardo's study just like
Milgram's study we can conclude that normal adults will do terrible
things when simply asked to do so by a nearby authoritative figure
(Milgram found much lower obedience rates when the "teacher" was a lab
assistant or directions were given via a tape recorder instead of in
person). I think I've always thought of Zimbardo's study as a study in
which there were few incentives to act in an evil way. This TIPS
discussion makes me rethink the Zimbardo study more along the lines of
Milgram's study in which direct requests/suggestions for evil were made.
Marie
Christopher D. Green wrote:
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,
--
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Marie Helweg-Larsen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773
Carlisle, PA 17013
Office: (717) 245-1562, Fax: (717) 245-1971
Webpage: www.dickinson.edu/~helwegm
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