Social Perceptions of Torture: Genuine Disagreement, Subtle Malleability, and In-Group Bias

This article explores whether people agree on what acts do and do not constitute torture and, if not, what social and contextual factors affect such perceptions. Some have suggested that there is a shared, commonsense definition of torture. If so, people should agree on whether particular acts constitute torture, and judgments should be unaffected by extraneous factors. In Study 1, however, American undergraduates disagreed about whether many acts constitute torture. In Study 2, they judged fewer acts as torture when they were embedded among more aversive acts. In Study 3, conservatives considered fewer acts torture when they were performed by Americans upon Iraqis than when they were performed by Iraqis upon Americans. This article discusses the implications of differing definitions of torture and recent controversies over treatment of detainees, recognizing that peaceful negotiations may well depend on how negotiating entities view their treatment at the hands of the adversary.