LeonhartFour posted...
There's a reason why torture has been such an effective method of interrogation throughout the ages.
Uh most emphatically no. Torture is a good way of extracting information yes, but whether it's accurate information is very questionable. Might i point out that torture was used to convict defendants in the Salem witch trials?
From what I understand, at least as far back as World War II, the primary method of extracting information from prisoners by the Nazis was to... confront them with the lies they told until they decide to tell the truth IIRC.
I'm 95% confident that torture is not the most optimal method of generally extracting information from initially uncooperative parties, 30% confident that it's never the most optimal method for any situation that occurs more than ~1% of the time.
The threat of torture is an entirely different matter though.
Also uh, it depends. It's certainly true that unpleasant things are more likely to make humans do things they would like to do simply because we're risk and loss adverse as opposed to pleasure attracted. But pain also tends to impede productivity since the exact motivational forces which would force someone toward doing something they want would also apply if their goal is an unpleasant one. (For example, if starting your homework gives you an initial twinge of distaste, you're far more likely not to start). But eh, I'm not entirely sure what the literature says so...
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