Torture is prohibited by statutes worldwide, yet the legal definition of torture is almost invariably based on an inherently subjective judgment involving pain severity. In four experiments, we demonstrate that judgments of whether specific interrogation tactics constitute torture are subject to an empathy gap: People who are experiencing even a mild version of the specific pain produced by an interrogation tactic are more likely to classify that tactic as torture or as unethical than are those who are not experiencing pain. This discrepancy could result from an overestimation of the pain of torture by people in pain, an underestimation of the pain of torture by those not in pain, or both. The fourth experiment shows that the discrepancy results from an underestimation of pain by people who are not experiencing it. Given that legal standards guiding torture are typically established by people who are not in pain, this research suggests that practices that do constitute torture are likely to not be classified as such.
Source: “What Constitutes Torture? Psychological Impediments to an Objective Evaluation of Enhanced Interrogation Tactics” from Psychological Science
I highly recommend the documentary Standard Operating Procedure which covers the events at Abu Ghraib.
You can also subscribe via RSS, Twitter, or email. Check out the site’s most popular posts of all time.
Digests of posts:
Things you didn’t know about sex
How to quickly and easily improve your life
Things you didn’t know about sports
Things you didn’t know about happiness
Things you didn’t know about lies, liars and detecting lies
Things you didn’t know about negotiation, persuasion and influence
Things you didn’t know about marriage and relationships
TheRedArchive is an archive of Red Pill content, including various subreddits and blogs. This post has been archived from the blog bakadesuyo.
Title | Are we more likely to classify something as torture if we are in pain? |
---|---|
Author | Eric Barker |
Date | April 24, 2011 4:03 PM UTC (12 years ago) |
Blog | bakadesuyo |
Archive Link |
https://theredarchive.com/blog/bakadesuyo/are-we-more-likely-to-classify-something-as.15909 https://theredarchive.com/blog/15909 |
Original Link | https://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/04/are-we-more-likely-to-classify-something-as-t/ |
© TheRedArchive 2024. All rights reserved.
created by /u/dream-hunter