Social Stereotypes In Abu Ghraib Prison

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During the Iraq War in 2003, it is disheartening to hear that scores of Iraqi detainees who were kept in the Abu Ghraib prison were mistreated inhumanely as they were beaten, raped and humiliated by American soldiers. Yet, it is somehow hard to account for their anti-social behaviors. This thought piece, therefore, is going to illustrate the mistreatment in Abu Ghraib prison by using different examples and concepts in respect of social psychology: To begin with, the concept of discrimination contributes to the inhumane situations of the Iraqi detainees. Discrimination refers to the negative behaviors towards an individual on the basis of their particular group (Dolinski, 1996). As soldiers may hold prejudiced views (Duckitt, 1992) namely they have the rights to beat the Iraqi because they are white and soldiers have a higher social position than prisoners so they can do whatever they want to the detainees, such stereotypes are possible to cause soldiers’ hostility towards the Iraqi, eventually resulting in racial and social class discrimination (Libal, 2014)…show more content…
The conformity concept states that one’s opinions and behavior may alter so as to match others’ expectations (Milgram, 1978). Under normative social influence (Rimal & Real, 2005), soldiers will avoid being rejected by members of the same military team, group pressure is then resulted to urge them follow the crowd to treat the Iraqi brutally. For instance, even though a soldier has a belief that it is inappropriate to force the Iraqi perform oral sex, he will eventually accept and be willing to do this to avoid being isolated as this behavior is appropriate in others’ eyes. To meet with the general expectations within the group, that is why most of the American soldiers will perform these humiliating actions under group pressure, explained by the principle of
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