28 ms·

>There are countless other quotes of guards and prisoners saying they were "just acting". It seems entirely possible that "just acting" was an after the fact j

>There are countless other quotes of guards and prisoners saying they were "just acting". It seems entirely possible that "just acting" was an after the fact justification. People are very unreliable witnesses of their internal processes, this is probably even more true when someone has reason to feel guilt for their actions. >I'm not sure it matters so much why you're locking someone in a closet for 6 hours (just acting, wanting the experiment to succeed, wanting to please your teacher, having sadistic tendencies, etc.) Fake it until you make it, torturer edition.

wpietri 8y ago
Yes, exactly. Imagine trying to explain to people that you participated in something where you did horrible things for structural reasons. To really pull that off, you need to convince every interlocutor that they too would be prone to this. When it's much easier for your audience to believe that it's just you that's horrible, and they are fine and decent people who wouldn't do as you did. Especially decades later, I'd be very reluctant to naively credit people's explanations here.
- shkkmo 8y ago
  Except we don't have to, we have experimental evidence that shows what happens and what happens is not what 'happened' in the SPE.
  - wpietri 8y ago
    We don't have to what? I could believe that the SPE doesn't really get at it, but people do end up doing horrible things for structural reasons. That doesn't change the incentives for trying to explain that to people who weren't there.
  - pas 8y ago
    What's the p-value on these? How many trials were there? We have separate events, and we try to compare them, and use them as "evidence". I don't think the SPE is great science, but people are very easily driven by circumstances, and it'll take a lot of time to fully unpack the dynamics and ethical consequences of that.

28 ms·

>There are countless other quotes of guards and prisoners saying they were "just acting". It seems entirely possible that "just acting" was an after the fact j

by EthanHeilman 8y ago

wpietri 8y ago
Yes, exactly. Imagine trying to explain to people that you participated in something where you did horrible things for structural reasons. To really pull that off, you need to convince every interlocutor that they too would be prone to this. When it's much easier for your audience to believe that it's just you that's horrible, and they are fine and decent people who wouldn't do as you did. Especially decades later, I'd be very reluctant to naively credit people's explanations here.
- shkkmo 8y ago
  Except we don't have to, we have experimental evidence that shows what happens and what happens is not what 'happened' in the SPE.
  - wpietri 8y ago
    We don't have to what? I could believe that the SPE doesn't really get at it, but people do end up doing horrible things for structural reasons. That doesn't change the incentives for trying to explain that to people who weren't there.
  - pas 8y ago
    What's the p-value on these? How many trials were there? We have separate events, and we try to compare them, and use them as "evidence". I don't think the SPE is great science, but people are very easily driven by circumstances, and it'll take a lot of time to fully unpack the dynamics and ethical consequences of that.