The Stanford Prison Experiment , 1971

in science •  7 years ago 

Well when I was writing about the evil experiments that crossed the ethical boundries. I didn't forgot about this one . I just wanted to evaluate Philip Limbardo's experiment seperately. The experiment mainly studies the behavioral change on the individual in the circumstances of power shift. Eventhough I don't approve Limbardo's method this guy knows how evil looks like and he dedicated his entire scientific carrier trying to understand the nature of evil and heroism.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)


In 1971 Limbardo and his crew wanted to observe the responses of people to the social roles decided by the society. They created a prison in the Stanford psychology department. The next step was finding the subjects. They found the subjects so main idea in the experiment was simple . They were going to observe the responses of the individuals to the social roles. Zimbardo seperated the subjects in to two groups. First one was Guards other one was Prisoners. We can say that guards are the group that have power and acceptance by society. Prisoners were the individuals with limited rights and they were neglected by society. The fascinating part is the participants in both roles were just average people from society. These people never had the taste of power or never experienced losing their rights and become so powerless. Unlike the famous Milgram experiment Limbardo didn't gave any instructions to the applicants . He just gave them their new social roles and wanted to observe.

What Happened ?


Well the things happened after couple of days were amazing. Everybody accepted their role faster than expected. Guards started to become drunk with the power and abused their power in order to maintain order. Prisoners started to think they will never leave this prison and started to show agression and created anarchy. Because of the created chaos Guards started to become more agressive. Do I need to tell you these were just normal people ? . Things escaleted quickly and experiment cancelled after a week. The results were unbeleivable.

Eventhough the study got many criticism about the ethical issues and lack of ecological validity. I think it was a great well crafted experiment. Because even the big black glasses guard wearing was pre crafted and it prevented to them to show emotions to prisoners. However Most of the guards later claimed they were simply acting. Because the guards and prisoners were playing a role and their behavior simply may not be affected the same conditions in real life. However I still think this study was a milestone in social studies and pshycology.

Sources

Image: 1,2,3

Thanks For Reading & Hasta La Vista

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http://gradschoolfool.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-stanford-prison-experiment.html

Considering that Zimbardo had a predetermined purpose in mind for the experiment (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998, p. 709), and that there was no set hypothesis for the Stanford Prison Experiment, a closer look at Zimbardo's motivation must be examined.

It wasn't really an experiment as much as it was a dog-and-pony show

Well I can't disagree with you there weren't any controlled enviroment in the study . So we can't really accept all the information obtained by experiment is 100 percent legitamte but it is was still a shocking one . However execution I can't say the same thing aobut it !

Millgram ran a pretty decent experiment, and it addressed the points you make.

Lomabrado, IMO, wanted to propagandize against the prsion system (I give the reasons in the article).

The conclusion that Millgram shows is valid, and the way that Lomabardo set up his own "experiment" was intended to carry on from that.

...so yes, humans can be evil, and they can be evil with little warning...but depending on the situation.

(I have heard some criticisim of Milgram's experiment, too, but have never really looked into them ;> )

I had wondered if anybody was going to bring this up. Thanks. :)

Thats very interesting article I read it in one breath

Yup, pretty sick. People are nuts lol.

Indeed man

pretty nice article

I applaud standing @steeminator3000

Amazing job @steeminator3000 Followed...

Even though we do not know if this experiment was legit, I still get the chilz of this.

I remember seeing the movie The Experiment (2010). It looked very exaggerated, but after reading a bit about the experiment, I could see how might behave like that way.

Good post @steeminator3000!

Das experiment was great I thought the movie was exagarated too but after reading a lot of reports from subjects I think It might be real. Well probably it is not a legit experiment but it is a great observation study.

Oh, yeah. I remember this project. Psychology is really interesting, I love it. :)