the power of situation

discussing social influence and conformity in psych class this week i got to thinking about the zimbardo prison study again.
this one never goes away.
i can always go back to this, however unethical, and relate societal pressures and the need for acceptance to the roles we take on.
like the other self.
zimbardo himself even testified at the Abu Graib prisoner abuse scandal.
he argues that even good people can turn evil.
pretty much.
(i'm not at all defending the "soldiers" who tortured prisoners)
in groups it's difficult to go against the grain. to be an individual.
it's easier to obey orders and follow the crowd.
that was what the "soldiers" said. they were just "following orders".
the government said they were bad apples.
the government, passing the blame back to the individual.
in doing so, making the fundamental attribution error that we all are guilty of.
in a society that values personal achievement and individualism, yet is built on the power of conformity, allows us to still blame others when group interactions go wrong.
personal traits vs situations.
there's nothing wrong with the system, it's the people.
this implies nothing needs to change.
it's a fine line between compliance and obedience.
it's easier to obtain compliance when deindividuation occurs.
that uniformity becomes comforting and it becomes easier to change our beliefs than our behaviours.
and it allows society to stip away our individuality and increase our allegiance to the group mentality.
i wore a catholic school uniform growing up.

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In the background: 2008 Giller Prize