People wonder how U.S. soldiers could mistreat prisoners so badly at Abu Ghraib, or how Nazi soldiers could systematically kill so many Jews and others during WWII. Using any three of the following concepts and research, describe how the concept or research finding could be applied to one of the situations listed above. Milgram’s research Zimbardo prison experiment Foot in the door phenomenon Bystander effect In group/out-group Normative social influence

The Milgram Experiment focused on the effects of authority on individual conscience—if the boss tells us to do something we know is wrong, can we justify obeying? In this experiment, the test subjects believed that they were harming another person with electric shocks. Even when they protested, every one of them continued to administer the shocks when the experimenter told them that they had to keep going. Milgram concluded that obedience to authority is ingrained, and we are likely to follow orders, even if we disagree with them. The soldiers in your examples may have objected personally to the way the prisoners were being treated, but perhaps they felt that since they were “just following orders,” they didn’t have a choice and couldn’t be responsible.
The “foot in the door phenomenon” is a compliance technique that starts out by making a small request of someone, and when they agree, progresses to larger, more substantial requests. The theory is that once someone agrees to something minor, they begin to feel “involved," and are more likely to comply with the larger requests. The prisoners probably weren’t subjected to extreme cruelty right away. As the situation escalated, the soldiers may have felt that since they were already committed to this path, they should continue.
We’ve heard stories about people in big cities being murdered right on the sidewalk in front of several onlookers who do nothing to help: this is the “bystander effect." It occurs when a group of people witness a disturbing event together. They all may be moral, ethical individuals who would quickly step in to help if they were the only other person there. But in a group, they each believe that one of the others will do something about it... and then nobody does. Maybe the soldiers all assumed that someone else would take the lead.
http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/freed_fras_foot.html

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/we_are_all_bystanders