Quote:
Originally posted by Suburbanite,
I believe 75% of people, when given a position of absolute power, will easily become the next Hitler. After all, is there ever such thing as a truely kind dictator? |
There was an experiment done at a university on this, I dont remember the keywords so wouldnt nkow where to find it. The volunteers were divided in 2 groups, jailors and prisoners. These were just ordinary people. Anyhow the upshot was that left to their own devices what unfolded mirrored nazi style abuse. The jailors spent their time thinking up and carrying out more and more abusive acts, including humiliation, physical torture, sexual abuse, degradation, violence etc, and the whole situation deteriorated so badly the experiment had to be prematurely stopped.
Another example of the same phenomenon was Germany during nazism. A huge amount of abuse came out of what were previously ordinary people, or at least believed to be.
While I dislike what Suburbanite says above, experience seems to indicate that a surprising percentage of the population would indeed become highly abusive.
Lava