Pros And Cons Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

Homework: Unethical Studies

The Stanford Prison Experiment was done by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo in an actual prison-like setting. He conducted this experiment to see how people responded to a cruel environment without any clear set of rules. They wanted to test the power of the environment to change and transform otherwise normal peoples everyday behavior. After an extensive series of psychological tests, Dr. Zambardo and his team selected 24 of the most healthy and “normal” people that responded to his add in the paper. He then split them at random into two separate groups; guards and prisoners. The guards were given objects that represented power prison guards have like handcuffs, whistles and reflective sunglasses. The prisoners were mock arrested without warning, blindfolded, stripped of their clothes, and given a dress with a number that replaced their names. In short, the guards assumed their roles whole heartedly, and began to escalate their use of power with the intention to taunt and humiliate the prisoners. The guards knew that it was just a simple toss of the coin that decided their fate as guards instead of

He did this because the guards were abusing the prisoners during the night time when the experiment was supposed to be stopped until the next morning. This showed how caught up in mistreating prisoners the guards really became. Dr. Zimbardo had become so caught up in the experiment, like everyone else, he failed to recognize the severity of what was going on. I think the actual turning point was when Christina Maslach was brought in to interview the prisoners, and completely objected to the whole experiment. She was the only person to notice what was happening and that is when Dr. Zimbardo finally called it off. They do use this study however, to show how overwhelmingly easy it is to be blinded by power and sadly our prisons are still abusing it along with