Milgrams "obedience" & The Stanford Prisoner Experiment
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 3:26 pm
It just struck me that the behavioral predispositions shown in both of these experiments should be counted as further vestiges of bicamerality. It is very interesting how "depersonalization" or "deindividuation," of both the guards and the prisoners, was so key. Also interesting is the role of authority and social precedent. Zimbardo writes that "That's one way that evil is created, as blind obedience to authority. But more often than not, somebody doesn't have to tell you to do something. You're just in a setting where you look around and everyone else is doing it." Not only should this susceptibility to "authority" and the "authority of the group" be seen as a vestige of bicamerality, but also our rather fragile and precarious "individuation."