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The Stanford Prison Experiment: What Happens When Good People Turn Evil?

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The Stanford Prison Experiment What happens when good people turn evil? That was the question asked when Dr. Philip Zimbardo wanted to conduct a new experiment about just that. He wanted to show the world just how crazy people can get while given roles of authority. Never in a million years though, did he think that this study could become one of the most iconic experiments ever. This experiment basically let boys run wild and humiliate each other. Sadism and degradation play a big role in this study unintentionally. Understanding how good people turn evil may be hard to do before hearing about this experiment, but afterwards you won’t have to ask that question anymore. The Stanford Prison Experiment highlights what happens when humans get …show more content…

Prisoner #819 felt sick, refused to eat, and wanted more sleep so he was the only boy who chose not to speak with him. Zimbardo asked Guard Arnett to encourage #819 to take a few minutes to talk with the priest and eventually he agreed. Prisoner Stew-819, to say the least, looked terrible. He had dark circles under his eyes and uncombed hair going in what seemed every direction. That morning Stew-819 did a bad thing: during an outburst of rage, he messed up his cell, tearing open his pillow and throwing feathers everywhere. Like other inmates before, he was put in the Hole and his cellmates had to clean up the mess. During his chat with the priest he broke down and began to cry hysterically just as #8612 did. While trying to comfort him, Zimbardo let him take a time-out outside of the Yard. To reassure him Dr. Zimbardo said that he would get him some food and then take him to see a doctor, but #819 refused to leave, saying that he wants to carry on with the experiment. Dr. Zimbardo seems convinced enough and leaves the room to let Stew-819 rest for a little bit. When he was walking back to his office he heard an eruption coming from the Yard. Guard Arnett made the prisoners line up and had them chant “Prisoner 819 did a bad thing”, “Prisoner 819 is being punished”, “Because of the bad things that Prisoner 819 did, my cell is a mess.” When Zimbardo heard this he rushed back to the room that #819 was in and found him “hunched over into a quivering mass, hysterical.” (Zimbardo 107) while in the background his fellow inmates were yelling that he was a bad prisoner. Stew-819 refused to leave after Zimbardo suggested it; he said that he couldn’t leave because the other prisoners labeled him a bad prisoner. At this point Zimbardo said “Listen carefully to me, now, you’re not 819. You are Stewart, and my name is Dr. Zimbardo. I am a psychologist, not a prison superintendent, and

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He was no longer the same man who, ”broke away from guards while being returned to his cell from the exercise yard and climbed the exposed pipes and bars like an animal, kicking down television sets suspended outside on the bottom tier” (Earle76),

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This reveals that the prison camp was unjust when dealing with punishments. If someone found out about someone escaping, they would immediately report it because it was "just" according to the rules of the prison camp and they do not want to get

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The Stanford Prison Experiment was a research study administered by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, which gathered twenty-four men to be put into a pseudo-jail to see the impacts of prison on the guards and inmates. Twelve of these volunteers were randomly selected to be inmates and the other twelve became guards. Not surprisingly, the inmates endured incredible torment and a few of them had psychological collapses due to severe emotional distress. The guards were consumed with their own power and felt little sympathy for the inmates that were under their care and stripped them, whipped them, dehumanized them. The research was expected to keep going for two weeks; however it went on for only six days due to the inmates encountering damaging levels

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Punishment included, but wasn’t limited to, physical contact. Mr. Zimbardo was also playing the role as the prison superintendent,

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It was also interesting that none of the other prison guards ever said anything to him about his behavior and even went along with him. I think it was unethical of the psychologist in charge of the experiment to react as the prison superintendent when

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The guards were instructed to maintain order anyway they wanted without using physical violence. Zimbardo wanted the guards to seem intimidating while the prisoners were made to look inferior and were to be referred to with their ID number only. After the prisoners were assigned their roles and the guards took their post was the effect of the experiment finally setting in. On the morning of the second day the prisoners began to rebel against the guards by ripping off their ID numbers and barring the doors while taunting the guards. This event was the first step down the slippery slope that would follow.

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The participants were randomly selected by flipping a coin. They were either made a guard or an inmate; There were 10 inmates and 11 guards. Zimbardo wanted the “criminals” to feel like real criminals and treated like real criminals. He had the participants arrested at their own homes and taken to the police station to go through the whole process of

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He began to cry hysterically and was clearly disturbed. He was instead sent to a different room. In my opinion, he should have been dismissed from this project at this time. Inmates immediately began chanting and verbally abusing the inmate. Prisoner #819 continued to cry but was then comforted by Zimbardo, who finally dismissed him from the experiment, clearly many hours too late.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment took place forty years ago, led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Although the purpose of this experiment was to explore the impact of systems and situations on human’s behaviors, it resulted in severe harm in mental health and ethical concerns. Harm caused by the study: Since the participants are assigned into two groups as prisoners and prison wardens in the study, the prison wardens thought that they had to play in an authoritative role and did sadistic behaviors. It resulted in mental breakdowns and emotional harm to the prisoners. They used various tortures such as stripping naked and interrupting sleep to the prisoners.

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The psychologists removed the chain from his foot, the cap off his head, and told him to go and rest in a room that was adjacent to the prison yard. They told him they would get him some food and then take him to see a doctor. While this was going on, one of the guards lined up the other prisoners and had them chant

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We look at how it was conducted and what we can learn from it. (n.d.). How Zimbardo 's Prison Experiment Reveals Social Roles ' Effect On People 's Behavior. Retrieved, from https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence_personality/stanfordprison.php Stanford Prison Experiment. (1970, January 01).

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As for the guards they were told they didn't have to stay on site after their shift was over. After it all the guards were just become completely different people. For example, complete different attitudes, they did not have any respect or sympathy for any of the other “prisoners”. As the days went on the guards became animals. Finally at one point one of the guards had snapped at one of the prisoners and had assaulted him with the wooden bottoms they were given by the researchers.after that point the experiment had to be ended after just 6

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Zimbardo wanted this experiment to be as real as real-life. He instructed the guards to do whatever they think necessary in order to maintain law and order in the prison (Zimbardo, 2015). “Prisoners were treated like every other criminal, being arrested at their own homes, without warning, and taken to the local police station” although physical violence was not allowed (McLeod, 2017). What Zimbardo found was that within a short amount of time all the participants adopted to their roles easily. The experiment demonstrated how people will comply with the expectations that come from certain social roles.

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