Reicher & Haslam
Rethinking The Psychology of
Tyranny
Background
What were Reicher & Haslam
interested in?
 Rethinking
 Tyranny:
the Psychology of Tyranny
the arbitrary and/or oppressive
exercise of power in an unequal social
system
Why did tyranny need
rethinking?
 Zimbardo’s
SPE
 Implications of SPE
 Changing face of tyranny
 Rise in number of people imprisoned
 Alternative theory – SIT
Zimbardo’s
SPE
Issues from SPE
 Conclusions
focussed on the power of
social roles & group membership in
shaping behaviour. People have little
choice in what they do, they behave
according to assigned roles
 Implications of these conclusions
 Tyrants cannot be held responsible for
what they do, and so should not be
challenged, their behaviour is an inevitable
product of the situation they are in
Issues from SPE
 Ethics
 Ideas
from SPE have not really been
tested or challenged as conditions in the
study became so extreme study had to be
terminated, not thought possible to
replicate the study ethically
 SPE conducted in 1969
Terrorism
 Can
terrorist actions be explained using
theories of social roles and group
membership?
 Are
these people responsible for their
actions is their behaviour and inevitable
product of the situation they are in?
Changing face of Tyranny
Changing face of Tyranny
Abu Gharib
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In 2004 it came to public attention
that Iraqi prisoners at Abu Gharib were being
abused at the hands of American soldiers.
Prisoners were stripped naked sexually humiliated, they
were wired up and told to stand on a box – if they fell off
they would be electrocuted.
They were beaten and tortured both physically and
psychologically all whilst soldiers took pictures of
themselves smiling with their thumbs up next to their
victims.
Several soldiers were tried and convicted to as many as
10 years in prison for their actions.
Many blamed the hideousness of the situation, orders
from above and a lack of information on how to behave
appropriately
Changing Prison Populations
 If
putting people into prisons makes their
behaviour worse and the behaviour of their
guards brutal then we need to look again
at our criminal justice system.
 Over 9 million people are imprisoned world
wide
 In England & Wales 80,000 people are
imprisoned, a huge rise since the 1960’s
Alternative Theories - SIT
 Social
Identity Theory
 People only act in terms of group
membership if they identify with the group
(self categorisation)
Self categorisation
 Permeability
 If
group members believe that it is possible
to move out of the group they will not
categorise themselves as group members
Self categorisation
 Security
 How
aware are the group members of
alternative ways of thinking about the
group membership and the relationship
with other groups, if they are aware of
alternatives they may challenge
inequalities
Dispositional vs. Situational
Hypothesis
– tyranny is a direct result of
individual characteristics that pre-exist in a
person
 Dispositional
hypothesis – anybody will
behave in a tyrannical way when placed in
a certain situation or role regardless of
their personal characteristics
 Situational
Free will?
Free will – we have choices about the way
we behave
Determinism – we are forced to behave in a
particular way because of the situation we
are in