The Stanford Prison Experiment By Philip G Zimbardo

Obedience in Humans In 1973 the article "The Stanford Prison Experiment" by Philip G. Zimbardo created an experiment to study the daily prison life. Without strict orders, a person would not act out in such a way. Following the rules and staying obedient the whole time is a question Zimbardo wanted to find out. Zimbardo was curious to see if people would conform to the specific role they are performing in order to show obedience. It was set up just like a prison as much as it could be so these students could meet the expectations of the prison life roles. Once students got the role of a prisoner or a guard, Zimbardo tried to keep it as realistic as it could be to get the full observations. For example, police cars pulled into the school in a mass arrest as each suspect got a charge of a felony (Zimbardo 621). The prisoners were viewed upon as real life criminals. Every process that would be done as if this were a real life experience, occurred with the students. When the suspects arrived in the basement it was set up realistically

With the guards becoming crueler, it pushed the prisoners to pursue the role as a real-life prisoner. The prisoners began to feel humiliated by the guards and mentally harassed. One became so depressed that he had so much rage with uncontrollable crying, he was set free from the experiment (627). The guards would taunt the prisoners by singling them out because they would beg for it and they simply did not see eye to eye. As the hours passed, new emotions were being found within the prisoners and guards as this experiment was being conducted. Some guards felt disappointed in how they were acting, but the others were enjoying themselves with publically humiliating prisoners (629). The students were so caught up in the need to control people instead of realizing this was just a conduct