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While crawling in the Wikipedia, I found an article on an interesting experiment. Now that I know the result I am not sure what I would have done if I had participated. Maybe I am just afraid of the answer
Would you be yourselves be afraid of the answer?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Interesting. I remember Stanford Prison Experiment from a video about psychology. It seems that when people have absolute power, they tend to abuse it. In regards to the Milgram experiment, I also read something about it. I believe conformity was the main issue. Both an authority figure and the the mob mentality (see Asch conformity experiments) can literally rob individuals of their normal beliefs and behaviors, & it is much more than them merely hoping to get away with it by being lost in the crowd or merely following orders. The idea that the student ignores the subject's pleas for mercy not because he is an evil student, but because he is somehow entranced by the authority figure's command or to go along with the group's behavior is quite contrary to our expectations. However, in my pursuit of a college degree, I studied psychology, & learned some surprising things. Unfortunately, I had no room for a course called group dynamics that examined such things as we see here.

I know about this too, and Jeffbert's right, from what I remember last year

Deindividuation is another interesting phenomenon (you know that feeling of being 'one' with a sporting crowd?). The Prison study was interesting to me...even though it's ethically wrong...it provided some good insights into group dynamics.

Originally posted by Lisa@Aug 13 2004, 07:55 PM
I know about this too, and Jeffbert's right, from what I remember last year

Deindividuation is another interesting phenomenon (you know that feeling of being 'one' with a sporting crowd?). The Prison study was interesting to me...even though it's ethically wrong...it provided some good insights into group dynamics.

Similar phenomena was seen in Nazi thought control experiments in Warsaw Ghetto and in various concentration camps. Where Slav,Jewish, and Polish prisoners were given the charge over others. They would apply the most stringent measures over their fellows in the deluded and mistaken belief that they would not be killed themselves, if they were zealous in regards of their application of the rules and regulations of the constituted authority of the Law.

Originally posted by cybotron@Aug 13 2004, 02:36 PM
Similar phenomena was seen in Nazi thought control experiments in Warsaw Ghetto and in various concentration camps. Where Slav,Jewish, and Polish prisoners were given the charge over others. They would apply the most stringent measures over their fellows in the deluded and mistaken belief that they would not be killed themselves, if they were zealous in regards of their application of the rules and regulations of the constituted authority of the Law.

Now you say this, I remember my own grandfather experienced such a situation, though in a "weaker" way. Since he was not Jewish, he never went to a concentration camp, but he was forced to command other people in forced labors camps. However the most immoral thing he had to do was to force other people to work, hopefully no torture nor killing.
When the Russian freed them, they gave them weapons and forced them to find and kill remaining (sometimes unarmed) German soldiers. The instructions were to kill them all, even the unarmed ones. Because my grandfather was not alone, he had no choice but to kill even soldiers who were obviously forced into the army, sometimes barely aged 18 years

Edited 13 Aug
After verification it looks like my memory played me some tricks. My grandfather didn't had to kill the prisoners, although he felt like it was the case. The orders were to turn the prisoners over the Russians, that was equivalent to killing them as the Russians executed the prisoners. However he couldn't let them flee because a member of his group might have denunciated him and he could have been considered a traitor.