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Implications of Counterfactual Thinking...
Response Paper- Keith D Markman
‘‘It would have been worse under Saddam:’’ Implications
of counterfactual thinking
for beliefs regarding the ethical treatment
of prisoners of war
Markman’s original idea was based on public response to media portraying the cruelties and torture methods used on Iraqi prisoners in Us military prison Abu Ghraib. Media coverage portrayed a bias on the issue, some accounts making the argument that the prisoners would have suffered far worse conditions under Saddam’s prison control. Markman hypothesized that this downward counterfactual could be=2 0used to lessen the emotional response to these events, or lower the moral logic of those who hear the possibility of a far worse circumstance. He further hypothesized that the opposite could also be true, and when people heard information of an upward counterfactual, they would respond with more outrage and put into play a higher moral standard.
For his experiment, Markman studied a group of introductory psychology students to be randomly assigned to a control group, a downward counterfactual group, and an upward counterfactual group. The control group was given a packet of information about the events at Abu Ghraib, including pictures and news reports including a paragraph describing the 60 minutes broadcast that described the events as being brutal and inhumane atrocities. The downward counterfactual group received packets containing descriptions and documentation of the horrible conditions at Abu Ghraib under Saddam as well as the information in the control group’s packet. The upward counterfactual group received the control information and an additional paragraph about the ethical humane treatment of prisoners in a Danish military prison. All three groups were instructed to make an argument with the information provided regardless of their opinions, for the downward conditioning group: that being a prisoner under Saddam’s control would be worse than=2 0being a prisoner during US control, for the upward counterfactual group: make an argument that being a prisoner in the Danish prison would be better than being a prisoner in Abu Ghraib during US control, and the control just had to write a reaction to the event based on their own personal opinion. All participants took a test of conservatism and morality. In the downward counterfactual group participants showed they were more likely to increase their tolerance, or lower their morality and conservatism than in the upward counterfactual group where participants were more likely to respond more stringently with higher moral standard and higher conservatism. The experiment concluded that like violence desensitized viewers, media with a downward counterfactual like “would have been worse under Saddam” has a desensitizing effect on public response, making us more willing to accept more violent and less humane forms of treatment and respond with less emotion to events like Abu Ghraib.
This experiment is relevant to what we are studying in the first few chapters because it has many examples of basic methodology used in psychological experiments. In chapter 3 we learned about the techniques used to ensure a valid conclusion from an experiment like internal validity, ensuring nothing but the independent variable can20affect the dependent variable. This was kept consistent in this experiment through the use of the control material in the packets (the information from the 60 minutes broadcast and the news reports). The experiment also relates to the unconscious thinking discussed in chapter 3, automatic thinking. Members of these experimental can be swayed by small bits of information without realizing it. The information used to “prime” each group differently fits perfecting with the “priming and accessibility” process in chapter 3. Participants could easily access information about the better or worse situations and could use this to form their opinions.
I agree that the media can use techniques such as counterfactuals to alter the public’s response to a situation or event, but I’m not sure I agree that the experiment was a completely valid representation of this power . I think if you’re going to conclude the study with a statement about the influence of the media, the material used in the study should be in the form of media you’re trying to expose. I think people would react differently if they were told to watch a television program containing information about many different news events an then told to perhaps read an entire magazine containing one article about the events at Abu Ghraib than they would20to receiving a packet of pre-collected information like a test or information packet. I think it would be more believable had the source of information truly been the media, especially considering the sample group is only college students who are so heavily influenced by the media. I was impressed by the use of the conservatism scale and morality scale. It seemed like a complicated but a more accurate way to judge the participants response than say, having just any unbiased listener grade their morality or conservatism before and during the study. I’m sure that system can still have plenty of flaws because there are so many variables in play, but it still proves to be a more documentable and truly unbiased way to judge how the information alters response.
Published: March 28, 2009