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

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

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,’ ”

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