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What Are The Similarities Between The Stanford Prison Experiment And Lord Of The Flies

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A Comparative Analysis of Lord of the Flies and the “Stanford Prison Experiment” Pertaining to Human Behavior In Lord of the Flies, William Golding tacitly references a deeper meaning within his novel: the idea that when in isolation, the hierarchies the boys build, along with the social norms that are formed from these hierarchies, aid in increasing savagery. This concept of human behavior can be compared similarly to key components exhibited in Philip Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment,” which ultimately aided in uncovering the notion that “good” individuals can be transformed into “bad” individuals through conformity established in social situations. Lord of the Flies, along with the “Stanford Prison Experiment,” share resemblances through …show more content…

Melissa Dittmann, an author for the American Psychological Association (APA), aimed to find the correlation between abuses at Abu Ghraib and conformity caused by social situations. She quoted Zimbardo, who claimed previously as an eye-witness for multiple U.S. soldiers involved in Abu Ghraib, “That line between good and evil is permeable...we all have the capacity for love and evil...It’s the situation that brings that out.” (Dittmann). This statement provides justification that savagery can be determined by situational forces, and humans have the capacity for both good and bad behaviors. Dittmann quotes Zimbardo once again, who claimed, “They semantically change their perception of victims of the evil act, and change the relationship of the aggressor to their aggression– so ‘killing’ or ‘hurting’ becomes the same as ‘helping,’ ” …show more content…

This information, found from research by the team, supports the idea of a strong correlation between social situations and conformity, explaining how people can change their attitudes, or even behaviors in order to conform to social norms. These conceptualizations formed by the group’s research on the topic of conformity similarly relate to the boys of Lord of the Flies, who readily conformed to what they believed was decorous behavior in their new society, which was given to them by their impression of individuals being of higher social status than them. In a separate study, two researchers from PLoS Biology discuss the topic of the nature of conformity, arguing that an individual’s willingness to follow authority is dependant on identification with the authority in question and a belief that the authority is correct, as well as that destructive behaviors can be caused by creativity. The pair argue, “This suggests that individuals’ willingness to follow authorities is conditional on identification with the authority in question and an associated belief that the authority is right.” (Haslam and

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Comparing Lord Of The Flies And The Stanford Prison Experiment

523 Words | 3 Pages

There are uncanny similarities and differences between the novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding's and the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Philip Zimbardo. Two of the main subjects from LOTF were civilization and savagery. When put into isolation, would the boys on the island be civilized or fall into the trap of savagery. In the SPE, Zimbardo wanted to find out how humans would perform in a prison-like environment. He put 24 male students in a prison simulation, role-playing as prisoners and guards.

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Neither one of the circumstances was ethical at any point and had been publicized by the media for its explicit type of interrogation methods as well as sadistic behavior. In particular, Phil Zimbardo has argued that the study shows that strong situational forces can override individual differences in personality and moral values. In Abu Ghraib, soldiers were inserted into the role of prison guards and began to sadistically torment prisoners there and at other detention sites in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many of the specific acts of humiliation were similar to those that transpired in the Stanford Prison Experiment, according to Zimbardo. This theory has been challenged by allegations by Seymour Hersh, in the New Yorker, that these soldiers were in fact acting under direct orders of their superiors as part of a top secret Pentagon intelligence gathering program authorized by Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

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252 Words | 2 Pages

Lord of the Flies by William Golding has various similarities with the Stanford Prison Experiment. The british boys from LOTF were stranded on this island alone, secluded from the rest of society. The prisoners in this experiment were also secluded from civilization due to them being in this facility. Professor Zimbardo constructed this experiment not knowing how this could make serious mental damage to the volunteers. In LOTF, the boys were having an assembly and Ralph said “ We’ve got to have rules and obey them.

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598 Words | 3 Pages

The ¨Stanford Prison Experiment¨ was a breakdown of the morals and rules on how people would act toward one another due to their environment, rather than how they should. The study had created more questions than answers, specifically about the darkness and lack of moral standards that inhabits the human soul. It showed that methodical abuse and denial of human rights is nothing new in prison facilities. The novel Lord of the Flies shows how easily people become dangerous depending on their situation, and how easily humans become savages when there are no definite rules. Lord of the Flies and ¨The Stanford Prison Experiment¨ have many similarities in the way they both show the effects that occur when you lose all moral standards, and lack of rules.

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341 Words | 2 Pages

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1403 Words | 6 Pages

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767 Words | 4 Pages

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429 Words | 2 Pages

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1312 Words | 6 Pages

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