Interrogational torture

"[6] Ethical research studies require the informed consent of participants, making it impossible to experiment with nonconsensual torture.

[12] According to a 2017 article in Journal of Strategic Studies, "scientific evidence, expert testimony, and the historical record show that coercive interrogation is not effective in eliciting reliable information from prisoners".

Of the 31 detainees who later told scholars that they had indeed acted to undermine the regime, twelve (39%) also admitted that they had provided accurate information about their activities under torture.

[18] Nonetheless, Hassner argues that it is impossible to improvise quick and brutal torture and expect successful results: "Our society would have to acquiesce to a massive bureaucratized torture campaign, at times of peace or war, that targeted thousands, from all walks of life, regardless of culpability, to extract modest intelligence that was, at best, corroborative".

[19] Rejali states that the effectiveness of torture cannot be considered without investigating specific techniques and how they affect the victim's body and mind.

Charles A. Morgan III tested SERE techniques on volunteers and found that they reduced the reliability of eyewitness identification.

It was argued that torture could be relied on at least in cases where the result could be checked (for example, if the accused confessed to burying the murder weapon under a certain tree, the judge should send someone to dig it up.

"[26] False information about a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda was extracted from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi through torture[27][28] and was cited by the George W. Bush administration in the months preceding its 2003 invasion of Iraq.

[42] A 2016 ICRC survey of 16 nations found that support for torture to obtain military information was highest in Israel, Nigeria, the US, and Iraq, and lowest in Yemen, Colombia, Switzerland, and China.

[43][44] A study by Jeremy D. Mayer, Naoru Koizumi, and Ammar Anees Malik found that opposition to the usage of torture in interrogation was correlated with stronger political rights but not economic development or the threat of terrorism.