Why is torture effective?

Answer 1

Because most people find pain to be unbearable, they will give up information in order to end the pain caused by torture.

___

The assumption made in the question is doubtful. The victim may in fact simply provide the 'information' that he/she thinks that the torturer wants.

__________

Torture is effective because governments use it as an interrogation technique to provide information that will save thousands of lives, as well as the freedoms our country fought for. The one thing everyone holds dear to their heart is their life. When they have no possesions, no home, all they have left if their life. It's effective because most people will save their life in order to give up information.

__________

I've spent a bit of time researching the question online and determined the apparent consensus is that torture, indeed, yields "information" of a highly variable (and thus suspect) quality. Nation states and other groups may use torture for this reason alone; simply to stimulate a prisoner into talking about a desired subject matter. But, based on accounts of experienced interrogators, there seems to be a very low degree of truth in the information acquired through torture - many prisoners preferring to simply tell the interrogators what they want to hear (perhaps given the reality that telling the truth is absolutely no guarantee the torture stops). It should be noted the body of experienced interrogators seemed to hold that skilled psychological interrogation is the preferred method due a better quality of information being offered voluntarily.