Horrendous crimes against humanity have occurred in our times. The holocaust is prevalent in our thinking, education, and development. Many have grappled with how an event such as this was allowed to occur. Golding's novel ¥Lord of the Flies' endeavours to address to notion of evil in ordinary people which was highlighted after the Nuremberg and Eichmann trials. Hannah Arendt description of the ¥banality of evil' reminds us that evil is not restricted to the realm of the pathological.

From the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE), it is apparent that we quickly learn to conform to roles, rather than merely role-playing. In only a few days the roles dominated the participants. "There is abundant evidence that virtually all of the subjects at one time or another experienced reactions which went well beyond the surface demands of role-playing." . The SPE showed an inability to decipher the difference between themselves and their role .

In June 1942, they were required to move Jews in the Lublin district from smaller towns into larger ghettos in the area. Although "none of these actions involved mass executionsKJews who were too old, frail and sick to be transported were shot." The initiation into mass-murder came on July 12, 1942. The battalion received orders to round up 1,800 Jews from Jozefow. Men were sent to work camps, whilst "women, children, and elderly were simply to be shot on the spot" . Battalion commander Major Trapp explained the orders to the battalion, but provided an exceptional offer - "any of the older men who did not feel up to the task that lay before them could step out" . The first to accept was publicly rebuked by his commanding officer, but was publicly protected by Trapp. Trapp's precedent of protection encouraged a further ten men. Members of the battalion were assigned certain duties. Orders existed to shoot anyone too sick or frail to walk, infants and anyone resisting or attempting to hide. They were taken to a nearby forest, where they were to executed by firing squads. The men first assigned to firing squads were instructed by the battalion doctor on how to shoot "in order to induce immediate death of a victim" . Face to face, the policemen paired of with the victim . The shooting continued uninterrupted all day, until the numbers of Jews killed by each man was so great it was impossible to keep track.

Interestingly, the behaviour of the guards also mirrored the behaviour of Battalion 101. A third were cruel and tough, thriving on the power and became more sadistic, constantly inventing new ways to harass their prisoners. The middle ¥played by the rules' not deliberately mistreating the prisoners, but did not stop it either. Less than 20%, only two guards were ¥good', who would not punish prisoners, and did favours for them. In Battalion 101 over 80% killed Jews when requires, and less than 20% refused to do so. In both the SPE and Battalion 101 selection operated to avoid psychologically disturbed people. These were not violet or authoritarian types, and yet they showed most could behave in pathologically sadistic way given the right situation.

Human behaviour is extremely complex. It is influenced by many factors and social pressures, which can not be explained by one experiment. The combined results from the experiments give insights into particular aspects of human functioning and an explanation of abnormal behaviours. Milgram and Zimbardo demonstrate that normal people have the ability to commit horrendous crimes in extreme situations. Increasingly, these experiments show that situations influence behaviour in previously unthought ways. "The causes of behaviour, are more likely to reside in the nature of the environment rather than inside of the person."

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 3163
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)