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Why Is The Stanford Experiment Unethical

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The Stanford experiment is an experimental study that tries to analyze the relationship of power between prisoners and guards. The experiment follows 70 paid volunteer students who are divided to act upon the roles of prisoners and guards on a facility. On this study, the guards were dressed in clothing similar to that of an actual prison guard and were provided with tools to establish their authority. Meanwhile, the prisoners were given uniforms sewn with a number on their back to dissolve their personal identity. During their assigned roles, the researchers try to observe the naturalistic interaction between the non-trained guards and the confined prisoners. Quickly, they found that both, the prisoners and guards, had internalized their roles for their situation. For instance, the guards would display behaviors that would assert their authority, such as blasting whistles and …show more content…

When I first read the experiment, I was surprised to see how researchers conducted the Sandford experiment. To begin with, the study, despite trying to be realistically done, had a poor population validity and reliability, not to mention the ethical issues against the volunteers. Especially, when I saw the documentary, I was shocked at the level of distress coming from both the prisoners and guards. Although, I was intrigued by the resulting scenario, I knew this experiment was harmful to the wellbeing of the volunteers. For that reason, I strongly believe the Stanford experiment was unethical because of its treatment against the human participants. Even though, the study did contribute useful information on the dynamic of power, it was done through the wrong measures to be considered appropriate. Thus, I don’t believe the results of the study outweighs the cost of the participants, in relation to science alone. Finally, a study that harms its participants is not morally or ethically realistic to be

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147 Words | 1 Pages

In “The Standford Prison Experiment”, Philip G. Zimbardo, shows an example of how people who have power uses to abuse others to help show their dominance and power by using the prison experiment that was used at Stanford. Showing how people with power who are the guards are hurting the defenseless prisoners. This is shown in the article by the author when he said “I have singled him out for the special abuse both because he begs for it and because I simply don’t like him”( Philip 75). Showing how when guards were giving their power they demonstrated on the prisoners who in this experiment were seen as the victims or the prey of the violence that was used on them. To then show how they have power and quash the prisoner's moral of rebelling.

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810 Words | 4 Pages

Since the beginning of the human existence, man has always dominated and ruled over one another be it empires, corporations, or small groups. Authority and obedience has always been a factor of who we are. This natural occurrence can be seen clearly through the psychological experiments known as The Milgram Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. Both of these studies are based on how human beings react to authority figures and what their obedience is when faced with conflict.

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713 Words | 3 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Craig Haney, Curtis Banks and Philip Zimbardo in an attempt to simulate and study just what happens, psychologically, to both prisoners and prison guards in a prison environment. Unlike many experiments, these researchers didn’t start out with a fully-formed hypothesis. They simply started with the premise that the students’ behavior would somehow be affected by the role they were given. 22 students were ultimately chosen from a pool of applicants, carefully screened to ensure there were no mental health issues, and from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. They were randomly separated into Prisoner and Guard groups and on a chosen day the prisoner students were ‘arrested’ by local authorities and put through the booking process, ending with placement in the jail setting.

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613 Words | 3 Pages

Obedience and individuality must have a balance in order for a society to function alls well. According to head researcher and acting warden, Philip G. Zimbardo, the main purpose of The Stanford Prison Experiment would be to study and to understand the roles people develop in prison. In order to discover the roles that humans take in prison environments, Zimbardo would convert the basement of Stanford University into a mock prison. Twenty-four healthy male college students would participate in this experiment; however, half would be acting as prisoners and the latter as guards. This experiment would go on for two weeks to fully analyze the ending result of the mock environment.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

A study called The Stanford Prison Experiment was comprised of twenty people; they were split into two groups of ten, one group of guards and the other prisoners. The guards had only one restriction which was to not use physical punishment to resolve consequences, of which did not last long. 1A“Stanford prisoner counts and roll-call became a trial of ordeal and

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858 Words | 4 Pages

This connects to the idea of guards having the capability of turning evil through an atmosphere of the prison environment where they can turn evil and have no remorse feelings towards the prisoners. From the article, "Stanford Prison Experiment," by Saul McLeod, he explained that the evil tactics that were made by the guards were from the atmosphere of the prison environment because the norm for a prison guard is to act tough and have no remorse feelings towards the prisoners when assigning punishments. He also added that guards acted this way because they lost their sense of personal identity when they dressed up as a guard, which can show they may have believed that they were actual guards and the experiment was real, which might’ve triggered their dark side with harsh punishments. Therefore, losing their personal identity in a prison environment may have been the factor where they triggered their evil side during the prison

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1384 Words | 6 Pages

Multiple officers committed crimes together, helping each other, encouraging each other to do the crime and taking picture while in the process of doing the crime. In Stanford prison experiment, one of more guards would engage in an illegal act and others would later follow making it a group act. They were unaware of what they should do when a prisoner disobey, when one guard made a move to correct the behavior of the prisoner, the other guards followed

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599 Words | 3 Pages

Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo questioned, “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?” (Zimbardo, 1971) In 1971 a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the effects prison has on young males with the help of his colleague Stanley Milgram. They wanted to find out if the reports of brutality from guards was due to the way guards treated prisoners or the prison environment.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

Kantianism and Utilitarianism Versus the Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in aims to examine human behavior (Mcleod). The study took 24 college students and randomly assigned them to be prisoners or guards in a simulated prison environment: a basement in the Stanford Psychology building. While the experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, it was cut short after only six days due to the guards exhibiting brutal behavior and the prisoners suffering psychologically. While implicit Utilitarian calculations could attempt to justify the actions in the experiment, strict Kantians would have found the experiment morally unacceptable.

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820 Words | 4 Pages

Despite the argument opposing the Stanford Prison Experiment, some people still found it necessary for the progress of psychology. Prior to this large scale experiment, there was a lack of laws dealing with ethical guidelines, deeming this experiment as legal at the time because there were no rules against it. Without the Stanford Prison Experiment, new laws would not have been implemented into the prison systems to ensure that people involved in prisons remain safe. More specifically, this

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599 Words | 3 Pages

In Milgram’s first set of experiments, 65% of participants continued the experiments till 450-volt shock. All participants administered shocks of at least 300V. The result of Milgram’s experiment evokes the whole world and the experiment has been replicated in many different countries over the world. As the experiment was unethical, the original Milgram’s experiment was forbidden. But after 50 years, Burger (2009) proposed the similar experiment with ethical considerations to examine the level of obedience of participants.

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373 Words | 2 Pages

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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1087 Words | 5 Pages

The Stanford prison experiment was a study conducted in 1971 that consisted of 22 subjects, half of which were assigned to be “prisoners”, and the other half assigned to be “guards” in a fake prison. (Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973). The original purpose of the study was to provide insight into how the United States prison system functions and the psychological effects of being an inmate in a prison. The study also sought to explain the “deplorable condition of our penal system and its dehumanizing effects on prisoners and guards”. (Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973).

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360 Words | 2 Pages

The Stanford prison study proved to be the harmful of the two experiment. This was a bizzar study involving human beings. Normal human beings after undergoing this experiement became cruel. The studenst participating in the experiement were not educated on the after effects.

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746 Words | 3 Pages

Stanford Experiment: Unethical or Not Stanford Prison Experiment is a popular experiment among social science researchers. In 1973, a psychologist named Dr. Philip Zimbardo wants to find out what are the factors that cause reported brutalities among guards in American prisons. His aim was to know whether those reported brutalities were because of the personalities of the guards or the prison environment. However, during the experiment, things get muddled unexpectedly. The experiment became controversial since it violates some ethical standards while doing the research.

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