Compare And Contrast Obedience And Conformity

In this assignment I will be comparing and contrasting the terms conformity and obedience. I will also be answering the following questions:
1) Does research into conformity and obedience explain the horrors of war atrocities, such as The Holocaust, the Mi Lai Massacre in Vietnam or the abuse suffered by Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib prison?
2) Does research into independent behavior suggest these atrocities could be averted in future conflicts?

Conformity is a form of social influence in which a current state of thinking, or “held beliefs” undergo alterations in order to fit in with a group, this alteration or change is a reaction/response to “real or imagined group pressures”.
Real group pressures refers to the physical presence of others
Future atrocities could be averted however the choice remains burdened to the individual who experiences them. There are other factors to be noted in war such as economy, latent prejudice, collective will but first and foremost situational factors. As in Zimbardo’s experiment, a large group of carefully selected males were chosen to participate in what became to be called the Stanford Prison Experiment. In this experiment half of the PPs were chose to be guards and the other half prisoners. I will not recount the story, but after six grueling days the experiment was called to a halt. The prisoners were suffering from mental breakdowns due to the horrific conditions they were forced to live in by the guards. Several of the guards claimed that they had just been following orders. Several of the prisoners stated that once they had put on their uniforms; they started to develop the psyche of a criminal. It is interesting to see how behavior changes so dramatically when the environment changes. A video published on various websites shows an interview with a prison guard and a prisoner. When asked by the prison guard what the prisoner would do in his place, the prison