This post reminded me of two famous psychology experiments. The Milgram experiment concerns how humans respond to authority, and the Stanford Prison Experiment simulates the psychology of prison life. Both of these experiments are horrifying in their logical conclusion. The prison experiment website goes some way towards trying to explain the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
I first heard about the prison experiment while watching the German film, Das Experiment, which I caught late at night on BBC2 (with subtitles).
I always knew late-night TV could do me good.