A few days ago I posted a link to an article which discussed the abuses which occured at Abu Ghraib, in the context of the famous Stanford Prison experiments. In that case, students were randomly selected to play either prison inmate or guard. The study was supposed to last about two weeks, but had to be cut short when the student 'guards' began brutalizing the 'inmates.'

In this article in Slate, Prof. Philip Zimbardo, the designer of the original experiment, states that he believes this is so, while writer William Saletan feels that it doesn't come close.