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Zimbardo's Deindividuation In Abu Ghraib

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In the textbook, deindividuation refers to "loss of self-awareness and of individual accountability in groups." It can sometimes be a good thing to be anonymous but as Philip Zimbardo's TEDTalk describes it, it shows how it can bring out the evil in people that lose individual awareness and become a part of a corrupted group. Zimbardo discussed the situation in Abu Ghraib where guards were told to "to cross the line, give them permission to break the will of the enemy, to prepare them for interrogation, to soften them up, to take the gloves off," when trying to gather information from prisoners in Iraq. This was interpreted by the guards in truly horrific ways including sexual humiliation, sexual violence, physical violence, dog attacks, and
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