Topic

In their article “Why not everyone is a torturer”, writers Stephen Reicher and Alex Haslam focus on two main topics: the Abu Ghraib prison torture and how culture and leaders contribute to people becoming torturers.

While these are the underlying themes of the article, you should also note that the writers mention subjects such as studies in the field of social psychology, discriminatory attitudes, and American culture and his…

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How culture and leaders can influence people to become torturers

At the beginning of the article, Reicher and Haslam tell readers that 50 years of psychological research indicate that every person has a potential for evil and mention the notorious 1971 Stanford prison experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo (p. 189, ll. 7-10). This idea is also supported by the observations of political theorist Hannah Arendt, who remarked that the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was surprisingly ordinary. (p. 189, l. 17-21). However, the writers argue, it is simplistic to focus only on particular circumstances and an individual's perceived power and group influence when analysing abusive behaviour. In the writers’ opinion, the culture and leaders of a society play a major role in encouraging such behaviours.

Using the e…

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Argumentation

Most of Reicher and Haslam’s article is mostly characterized by direct argumentation. The writers express their ideas in a straightforward manner and provide explanations for their statements.

For example, the writers explicitly explain why they think it is bad psychology and bad ethics to assume torturers are just victims of their circumstances:

It is bad psychology because it suggests we can explain human behaviour without needing to scrutinize the wider culture in which it is located. It is bad ethics because it absolves everyone from any responsibility for events - the perpetrators, ourselves as constituents of the wider society, and the leaders of that s…