Week 8 - Evil and Tyranny

Question 1

What is the general theoretical bias in understanding evil? (x2)
As shown in studies by? (x3)

Answer 1

Conformity - we will fall into line with norms and actions of the group, even if group treats others badly
Asch
Milgram
Tajfel

Question 2

What kind of events are not explained by explanations of malicious acts as resulting from dysfunctional personalities? (x2)

Answer 2

Mass violence and genocide, such as holocaust -

Can’t all be psychopaths

Question 3

What did Moscovici propose regarding human capacity for evil? (x2)

Answer 3

That psychology is full of conformity bias -

If all we do is reproduce errors of the past, there could be no social change

Question 4

What is the paradigmatic example of conformity bias? (x1)

Which involved? (x2)

Answer 4

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
“Normal” students assigned to roles as Prisoners and Guards in a simulated prison.
Study brought to premature close after 6 days due to Guards’ brutality and fear for Prisoners’ well-being

Question 5

What conclusions were reached following the Stanford Prison Experiment? (x2)

Answer 5

Guard aggression was a ‘natural’ consequence of being placed in the role
We are powerless to resist the normative requirements of roles

Question 6

What is the Lucifer Effect? (x2)

Which Zimbardo and colleagues argue means that… (x1)

Answer 6

The classic model of conformity - 
Good people cannot help but conform to the toxic requirements of toxic environments 
Hierarchical systems (such as prisons) are, and can only be, places where prevailing power structures are (brutally) enforced

Question 7

What is the implication of attributing behaviour to the Lucifer Effect? (x1)
Which hasbeen done in what situation? (x1)

Answer 7

By denying human agency, the conformity model can be invoked by any tyrant or tyrannical group in order to excuse their actions
Abu Ghraib

Question 8

Why is the conformity model so unquestioned? (x2)

Answer 8

Because of the integration of the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment into contemporary culture
Even those who’ve never heard of it, have a vague awareness of it

Question 9

What evidence casts doubt on the ‘naturalness’ of Guard behaviour in the SPE? (x4)

Answer 9

While it was claimed they received no training, and that they behaved purely according to behavioural scripts,
Zimbardo gave clear leadership regarding expectations,
And fostered guard identification
Not just implicit demand characteristics, but explicit demand also

Question 10

What is a major cause of suspicion regarding the robustness of the SPE? (x3)

Answer 10

None of the findings were published in peer reviewed journals
Only formally written up in 2006 Zimbardo book
So none of his assertions can be analysed empirically

Question 11

Rather than uniform conformity to brutality by guards, what behaviours did they actually display? (x4)

Answer 11

Variations in choice whether to engage or disengage with brutality -
1/3 doing, 1/3 ‘going along’ 1/3 withdrawing -
Which is in line with other similar groups, such as death squads
And the most brutal interpreted the instructions with considerable creativity

Question 12

How does social identity theory contrast to the conformity model of group behaviour? (x3)

Answer 12

Key message is that resistance to prevailing power and social change are both possible
But require subordinate groups to act in terms of a shared opposition identity
ie the more ‘groupy’ the lower status group, the more inclined to social competition

Question 13

Why did Reicher and Haslam choose to conduct the BBC Prison study (2006)? (x3)

Answer 13

While experimental and field evidence supports SIT,
Saw the most stringent test as being in prison setting, where tyranny and abuse are widely seen as natural and inevitable -
If people can resist here, they can resist anywhere…

Question 14

What was involved in the BBC Prison Study? (x2)

Answer 14

SPE paradigm - random assignment to prisoner and guard roles

So power and status asymmetrically distributed

Question 15

How did the BBC Prison Experiment differ from the SPE? (x3)

Answer 15

Experimenters had no formal role in the prison, and provided no leadership
Factors were manipulated to test SIT (permeability and cognitive alternatives)
In order to test capacity for shared social identity to promote collective resistance and social change

Question 16

How did the BBC Prison Experiment manipulate group boundaries and cognitive alternatives? (x3)

Answer 16

Day 1: promotion allowed - personal identity-based social mobility (prisoners told possible to be promoted to guards)
Day 3: one promoted, disallowal of further promotions - social identity-based social creativity
Day 5: intro of trade unionist (expected to spontaneously intro ideology of change) - social identity-based social change

Question 17

What ethical protections were planned over 9 months leading up to the BBC Prison Experiment? (x5)
Making it possibly the most… (x1)

Answer 17

Three-phase applicant screening (340 down to 25)
24/7 security, medical and clinical psychologist monitoring
24/7 ethics monitors - 5 experts in related fields
Experimenters, ethics, psychs and Ps all involved in TV editing process
Post-study follow-up for Ps
Extensive and expensive ethical safety net of any social psych experiment

Question 18

What measures were used in the BBC Prison Experiment? (x6)

Answer 18

Behavioural observation (800+ hrs)
Daily psychological tests of 60 key psychological states/processes:
*social (e.g., social identification, cognitive alternatives, authoritarianism, social dominance, resistance, self-efficacy, stereotyping, modern racism, …)
*clinical (e.g., stress, depression, paranoia, self-esteem, burnout, social support, helplessness, …)
*organizational (e.g., leadership, communication, morale, trust, respect, loyalty, citizenship, …)
Daily physiological measures

Question 19

How did the prisoners behave during days 1-6 of the BBC Prison Experiment?

Answer 19

Before promotion (permeable): dislike inequality, act individually.
After promotion (impermeable): resist inequality, act collectively -
Increasing social identity increases collective efficacy and resistance —
To the extent that prisoners revolt and overthrow the system on Day 5

Question 20

How did the guards behave during days 1-6 of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x5)
Leading to what conclusion? (x1)

Answer 20

Several are uncomfortable with their role and with inequality -
Means they can’t develop shared social identity.
Leads to:
Social problems (disagreement, self-inefficacy, withdrawal)
Organizational problems (communication, trust, planning)
Clinical problems (paranoia, stress, burnout)
You need some kind of system or incentive to get people to behave so brutally

Question 21

What happened on days 7-8 of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x5)

Answer 21

Ps agree to set up Commune to take study forward (into new, unpredicted territory).
Initially collective ownership increases cohesiveness and productivity.
But no power to police the Commune makes it unworkable - structural crisis.
Power vacuum opens, and sense of powerlessness increases
Proposal for an alternative, more tyrannical, regime emerges.

Question 22

What was important about the developments over days 7-8 of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x4)

Answer 22

Although presented as banal development, new regime was proposed by ‘New Guards’ who:
(a) believed in, and were highly identified with, the regime’s aims (due to history and experience), and
(b) were highly creative.
Despite being contrary to the Commune’s values, this authoritarian solution seduces by promising order.

Question 23

How did the developments over days 7-8 of the BBC Prison Experiment reflect real world terrorism and despotism? (x2)

Answer 23

Not carried out by idiots who’ve been duped - genuine believers in positive change, fixing historical problems
Brings order in times of crisis

Question 24

What did the BBC Prison Experiment find regarding support right-wing authoritarianism during days 7-8? (x2)
How does this relate to the rise of Nazism? (x2)

Answer 24

Prior to start of study, those who later became new guards were higher in authoritarianism, and new prisoners low
But by the time new guards want to take over, they represent all the prisoners views
There’s individual difference, but these change, and people get more accepting of fascists –
It’s not them that change, it’s the populace

Question 25

What were the conclusions of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x5)

Answer 25

No support for obedience or role accounts
*No evidence that people blindly follow orders, ‘naturally’ conform to role, or find tyranny inherently seductive
Evidence is more consistent with an interactionist thesis
*A complex historical process, taking on tyrannical roles/moving towards tyranny is active choice requiring social identification catalyst for creativity and initiative
(as Zimbardo’s briefing implicitly recognized).

Question 26

What are the implications of the conclusions of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x4)

Answer 26

Challenges idea that tyranny and oppression are “natural”
And that conformity to roles of oppressor and victim is inevitable —
Striking at heart of metatheoretical assumptions exemplified by the SPE.
Can also be used to develop a theory of resistance …

Question 27

In the BBC Prison Experiment, as in Nazi Germany, it wasn’t conformity that was responsible, but… (x1, plus explain x3)

Answer 27

Creativity
Leading Nazis didn’t hand out orders – people identified with Hitler and the cause, so they asked themselves what he would want, and did it
Likewise, in BBC – what do they want from us, how can we be good Ps?
(Same with people who respond to demand characteristics in labs – the ones who identify with the scientific process. Those who don’t care aren’t paying attention…)

Question 28

What are the three main layers of Haslam and Reicher’s social identity model of resistance?
Which articulates what key idea? (x2)

Answer 28

The behaviours of the Resistant Group
Impact of Resistant Group’s Actions
Counteractions of the Dominant Group
When people identify with the agents of repression, they repress;
When they identify with groups opposed to that repression, they resist.

Question 29

How have traditional theorists responded to Haslam and Reicher’s social identity model of resistance (and its supporting evidence)? (x1)

Answer 29

Zimbardo lambasted external validity - preposterous to suggest could happen in real prison

Question 30

Is the idea of prisoners acting in terms of social identity and using this as a basis for resistance really so preposterous? (plus evidence x3)

Answer 30

No
The Maze, Northern Ireland: eventually unguarded (and closed) because guards couldn’t enforce against will of organised prisoner group
Recognised that effective control has been ceded to prisoners in many US State Prisons
Robben Island, Sth Africa (where Mandela spent 27 years): he felt that prisoners were running it, not guards - downfall of regime largely a function of this resistance

Question 31

What is the impact on social psychology of ignoring the results of the BBC Prison Experiment? (x2)

Answer 31

Theories tied to idea that human beings are constrained by inherent bias towards social stability and conformity to the predefined social structure
Social psychology tied to making us believe that the status quo is inevitable product of psych structures…

Question 32

What truth has social psychology ignored, that other social sciences recognise and study? (x2)

Answer 32

Resistance to power is commonplace -

Change is the norm, not reproducing the status quo

Question 33

How can we look beyond conformity in social psychology?

Answer 33

Despite it routinely being defining message of discipline’s classic studies, conformityisn’t natural, blind, or inevitable -
When people identify with a social system, they work to maintain/advance it
But if they don’t they won’t. Moreover, under certain conditions — where they develop/enact an oppositional social identity — they resist and work toward social change.
If we don’t appreciate/explain this, there’s danger that, in addition to a science of unremitting pessimism, we will be irrelevant

Question 34

How are the classic studies of social psych analogous to a Trojan Horse? (x5)

Answer 34

Impossible to ignore, impressive to introduce, but imperative to interrogate.
Must revisit with more critical eye - retain our appreciation for empirical significance but extricate ourselves from theoretical traps
Models of conformity that they embed so effectively are dangerously flawed:
Appearing to explain why social world is inherently toxic, rather than how this toxicity is brought about by certain forms of leadership and identity
—
And hence how toxicity can be resisted and overcome