The Science Of 'Zero Dark Thirty': When We Can Condone Torture
Zero Effect Ryan SnookA Hollywood thriller meets the science of perception. Critics have applauded the realism of the film Zero Dark Thirty, an Oscar favorite that claims to re-create the hunt for Osama bin Laden. But some have protested an early scene in which intelligence officers torture a man, then use the threat of further torture to persuade him to reveal a crucial bit of evidence. The New York Times called the controversy "a national Rorschach test on the divisive subject of torture." In 2009, two Harvard psychologists, Kurt Gray and Daniel Wegner, published the results of a more scientific test. The researchers seemed to cause a subject pain (by dipping her hand in ice water), then asked volunteers if she was answering a series of questions truthfully. In fact, the "subject" was acting, and the questions and answers were scripted. What Gray and Wegner really wanted to know was...