Has anyone ever heard about this? I read this a few years back and found it to be VERY interesting.

I used the search function here on UM and didn't find anything so sorry if this has been posted before.

Stanford Prison Experiment

What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University.


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I love reading about these kind of studies. You never hear of anything quite like this one anymore. The whole world has become to politically correct to try and pull off an experiment like this one.

We did something on this in sociology, but we concentrated mainly on the Milgram version. In this volunteers who had no idea what was going on had to ask an "inmate" questions and if they got it wrong had to give them an electric shock, operated by a switch. Of course it was really just an actor and the machine didn't work, but the volunteer didn't know that. It was done to see if they would do it and if they enjoyed it. None of them lasted till the end and they all exhibited guilt.

What we all found interesting is when you apply this experiment to the Standford prison one, and then to concentration camps, it generates some very tough questions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

yes we did this in psychology back in november. they wanted to see which of the would carry on once they saw the "victim" (confederate) was in "pain", conducted by milgram if im correct?

I've seen the Milgram experiment. It's really crazy just how far people will go.

The thing I found very interesting about the Stanford Study was this. My ex-brother in law was a pretty cool guy when he married my sister. We all grew up together in the same neighborhood. When they first got married he worked as an auto parts distributor, a fairly stress free job. I remember going with him to take the Civil Service exam for correctional officer. The test was simple. We passed with high rankings but I turned down every offer I got for the job because I just took the test to see how I would do on it.

My ex-brother in law headed off to correctional officer training, completed the course and started working at a women's prison. After about a year or so he had to have a prescription drug for stress. I can't remember which prescription drug he ended up on. His personality really changed once he started that job. He became reclusive and became a man of little words. He and my sister ended up deep in debt and started fighting like cats and dogs. The day he split my sister's lip open was the day they were no longer married.

Since all that, he changed careers back to being an auto parts distributor. I've talked to him after his life 'changed back' and he seemed like the same person I knew before he became a correctional officer.

I truly believe that everyone must have certain mental capabilities for jobs like this. You must have the ability to completely separate work life from home life. Even if you are a superior mental master at this, I am sure there is a part of everyone that would change.

It's a fascinating study, however it is misleading to call what happened 'evil'. People from normal society (students) were placed into a situation where the rules of the new society were very different and they changed as a result. As a species we are designed (via evolution) to survive, and this applies to our psychology as well as, if not more than, our physiology.

I would imagine the title was referring to the real life prison systems rather than their study.
I've always been fascinated with these kinds of studies though. However, I can't stand tv shows like survivor... go figure.

'Reality TV' is nothing like reality because there is the promise of reward for the participants (plus they are all acting up for the cameras). I loathe it!!!

In the Stanford University Experiment the professor in charge wanted to study how people from outside a 'system' such as a prison would react to the pressures and psychology of incarceration. This professor, Phillip Zimbardo, also participated in the legal defense of Staff Sergeant Ivan Frederick II - one of the accused from the Abu Ghraib scandal. The S.U.E. had demonstrated how otherwise normal people can assume a horrifically brutal nature under pressure, and such behaviour was communally reinforcing in a situation such as a prison.

While I don't believe our nature is by default brutal, in some situations we could all be 'turned' so. It's an enlightening observation and one that makes us uncomfortable, even though it [how we have a dual-nature] is intrinsic to our humanity.

Lol I remember watching a psych series by Phillip Zimbardo in High School science. But yes I always found these experiments interesting, I always think of this particular one when people say that another Nazi/Hitler type situation couldn't happen.

I lurve reality TV!!

The awesome German film, Das Experiment was based on this, I highly recommend it.

They would go evil!