The principles of learned helplessness were controversially applied as a methodology for torturing prisoners by U.S. military and intelligence personnel after the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. The program's designers theorized that subjecting detainees to uncontrollable conditions would induce passivity and compliance, making them more likely to disclose information. However, this application, which Seligman himself never proposed, is widely considered to have been ineffective and is condemned as unethical and unjustified.