The Stanford Prison Experiment: Are Humans Born Good Or Evil?

For years there have been numerous articles published and experiments recorded to understand more about human nature. To answer the question, are humans naturally born good or evil? And what variables factor into humans being good or evil? This has been a popular question as the notable “The Stanford Prison Experiment” has concluded that humans are naturally evil despite controversy on demand personality; however, there have been studies done like “Are We Naturally Good or Bad” that concluded that humans prefer good intentions over malicious intentions. But before you can respond to the questions you need to first define what good or evil signifies to you. To me, being a good person is having authentic intentions behind their actions and having

In the video “The Stanford Prison Experiment (Part 2)” Michale Steven concluded: “We brought in people who had very different personalities that those Zimbardo chose. We put them in a situation that did not demand things from them and they behaved accordingly to that personality” (30:00-30:10). This exhibited an experiment that is a development of the original “Stanford Prison Experiment” with improved techniques. It was an experiment in which Steve selected participants who scored high in morals from numerous personality tests and placed them in a dark room where they couldn't see the other participants. And had them attempt to complete a puzzle and give them the option to play an alarming sound for the other participants that didn’t exist which they had control of the volume. This expresses that personality is a factor of human behavior, this experiment reveals how human’s personality is how humans acted accordingly when placed in a situation. It depends on a person’s personality is how they act in situations whether their personality is good or bad. Hence, the conclusion that Steven made about his improved Stanford Experiment: “In our test, we make sure that such influences didn’t exist and not one participant acted maliciously, personality rose above the situation” (33:07-33:18). This conveys that when humans are in a situation to cause harm to others, personality plays a factor in their decisions on whether to cause harm or not which impact human