“The participants rapidly descend into their assigned roles, with guards becoming cruel and sadistic and prisoners rebelling or sinking into despair. Zimbardo (Billy Crudup) and his team monitor the escalation of action, not realizing that they too have shed their identities and been absorbed into the experiment. After the screening, we’ll explore the film’s central question, a refrain echoing from Auschwitz to Abu Ghraib to ISIS: What insight does science provide regarding why some of us become capable of extraordinary cruelty?”
This program is supported by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of its Public Understanding of Science and Technology Initiative.
MODERATOR: Jeffrey Toobin
PARTICIPANTS: Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Scott Atran, Dean A. Haycock, Christina Maslach
DATE: Thursday, May 28, 2015
TIME: 7:00 PM-10:00 PM
VENUE: Redstone Theater, Museum of the Moving Image