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Philip Zimbardo Experiment

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South Bronx, New York City is where it really all started. Phillip Zimbardo – born in the inner city ghetto of New York City - would play in the streets as a child with his friends, when police cars would drive up and seize their toys. On one account they had managed to hide their toys from the police before they arrived, but an officer grabbed Phillip Zimbardo, pressed him against the cop car, demanding to know the location of their toys. Finally Zimbardo gave in, but since that day, he’s never trusted a man in uniform again. His personal encounters with law enforcement officers and growing in up in a ghetto area, have led him to develop an interest in social human behavior (Phillip, 2007). The Stanford experiment was about how the power of an institution affects an individual's behavior. The results mirror world events such as the Rwandan genocide, and the Abu Ghraib prison. The experiment began on a Sunday evening, August 14, 1971. To make sure the study seemed relatively real Zimbardo transformed part of the basement offices at Stanford University into a prison-like-environment. He put out an …show more content…

If the coin landed on heads they would be a guard, and if it landed on tails they would be a prisoner (Phillip, 2007). There was no physical or mental distinction that differentiated them to be a guard or prisoner. The Stanford Experiment shows that any good person can be a perpetuator of evil. Given the situation, it can bring out the worst of people. Sometimes a situation or environment can pull more weight than our own morals. We human beings can be evil, corrupt, and immoral. On the other hand we can ask ourselves, just how much will we let a situation affect us? As you look deeper into this study, you now know what humans are capable of. Everyone is capable of good and bad. We can choose to let the situation bring out the worst in us or the best of us. We can be heroes or villains. Which one will you

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