Closeness in the experiment was reasonably literal but may also be interpreted in terms of identification with the torturer. If the church is doing the torturing then the especially religious may be more likely to think the tortured are guilty. If the state is doing the torturing then the especially patriotic (close to their country) may be more likely to think that the tortured/killed/jailed/abused are guilty. That part is fairly obvious but note the second less obvious implication–the worse the victim is treated the more the religious/patriotic will believe the victim is guilty.
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Research in moral reasoning is important because understanding why good people do evil things is more important than understanding why evil people do evil things.
Not necessarily. You don’t punish people based on their likelihood of being guilty but based on severity of their crime.
If torture is used as tool to gain information instead of being used to punish it’s even more questionable whether the likelihood of being guilty correlates with the severity of the torture. The fact that someone decides to torture to get more information suggests that they have an insuffienct amount of information.
If there a 50% chance that a person has information that can prevent a nuclear explosion, you can argue that it’s ethical to torture to get that information.
After the bomb has exploded and you know for certain who did the crime, there not much need to torture anyone.
An interrigator that tortures is more likely to get false confession that implicate innocents. If he then goes and tortures those innocents, you see that people who torture are more likely to punish innocents than people who don’t.
An interrigator that tortures is more likely to get false confession that implicate innocents. If he then goes and tortures those innocents, you see that people who torture are more likely to punish innocents than people who don’t.
Even the first person who was tortured might be innocent or ignorant.
It seems to me that the same would apply to any in-group. The reasoning runs more-or-less as follows:
It is us (not me personally, but a group with which I strongly identify) that is treating this person badly; since we are doing it, then he must deserve it. Since he deserves it, he must be guilty. This is because if he did not deserve it, then I would be horrified at the actions of people I have always tried to emulate; and that, in turn, would mean that I had already given some support to an evil group, and had indeed put some significant effort into being a part of that group, taking up the group norms.
If the group is evil, or does evil actions, then I am evil by association.
And a good person does not want to reach that conclusion; therefore, the person being punished must be guilty. And thus, good people do evil things by not acknowledging evil being done in their name as what it is.
-Alex Tabarrok
One amusing aspect is that assuming the person is justified in their belief that their church/country is ethical, the above is a valid inference.
Not necessarily. You don’t punish people based on their likelihood of being guilty but based on severity of their crime.
If torture is used as tool to gain information instead of being used to punish it’s even more questionable whether the likelihood of being guilty correlates with the severity of the torture. The fact that someone decides to torture to get more information suggests that they have an insuffienct amount of information.
If there a 50% chance that a person has information that can prevent a nuclear explosion, you can argue that it’s ethical to torture to get that information.
After the bomb has exploded and you know for certain who did the crime, there not much need to torture anyone.
An interrigator that tortures is more likely to get false confession that implicate innocents. If he then goes and tortures those innocents, you see that people who torture are more likely to punish innocents than people who don’t.
Even the first person who was tortured might be innocent or ignorant.
Yes, but that’s besides the point I tried to make. Torturing in general produces a dynamic that makes you punish more innocent people.
It seems to me that the same would apply to any in-group. The reasoning runs more-or-less as follows:
It is us (not me personally, but a group with which I strongly identify) that is treating this person badly; since we are doing it, then he must deserve it. Since he deserves it, he must be guilty. This is because if he did not deserve it, then I would be horrified at the actions of people I have always tried to emulate; and that, in turn, would mean that I had already given some support to an evil group, and had indeed put some significant effort into being a part of that group, taking up the group norms.
If the group is evil, or does evil actions, then I am evil by association.
And a good person does not want to reach that conclusion; therefore, the person being punished must be guilty. And thus, good people do evil things by not acknowledging evil being done in their name as what it is.