October 28, 2009, Harvard University — Psychologists have found that the more a person appears to suffer when tortured, the guiltier they are perceived to be. According to the researchers, those complicit with the torture need to justify the torture, and therefore link the victim's pain to blame.
The full paper, which seems to have been published in 2010, even though the summary is from 2009(???), is: "Torture and judgments of guilt," by Kurt Gray and Daniel M. Wegner.
Full study is free to read here
So if you are ever arrested and mistreated, try to act stoic, I guess.
It's easy to see how this phenomenon could lead to spiraling sadism and abuse, as the abuser lashes out in hatred to bury their increasing guilt.
Edit: how cold was the ice water? That’s deeply variable and 90 seconds is literally nothing
I may be focusing on how completely inconsequential the phsyicsl “torture” was. If the subject is a good actor they may have been able to effectively convince the subjects being tested on empathy. Maybe.
they didn't actually do it, she was just acting, but presumably ice water would be just above 0°C
if you stuck someone's hand in ice water continuously for 80 seconds and they started to act like they were in pain and afraid, I think you might feel bad no matter what you told yourself logically.
Oh, that makes more sense.