17447. WHAT HAPPENED AT ABU GHRAIB? A SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PERSPECTIVE. This brief essay argues that U.S. soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi prisoners held at Abu Ghraib is not surprising from the perspective of social psychology. The soldier guards at Abu Ghraib were not very different from the “guards” in Zimbardo’s 1971 prison experiment. Morale problems, threat of attacks from insurgents, lack of training as prison guards, cultural and language differences, and the soldiers’ position of absolute power over prisoners explains their behavior. KEYWORDS: Iraq prisoner abuse Zimbardo Stanford prison experiment power dynamics. 2 pages, 8 footnotes, 6 bibliographic sources. 537 words.