In 1971, psychologist Phillip Zimbardo wanted to see the psychological effects of having prison guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities or whether the situation that created their behavior. They wanted to see whether having authority over people change their behaviors and how do they use it when they are not being guided. They got volunteers by putting an advertisement in the newspaper and in return getting money. The participants went through extensive psychological tests and only those deemed 'emotionally stable' were selected. The mock prisoners were stripped searched and were called by the number written on their smock. While the mock guards wore a typical police outfit, wooden clubs, handcuffs, and glasses.
During the experiment, the guards took up their roles with enthusiasm their behavior became a threat to the prisoners' psychological and physical health, and the study was stopped after six days instead of the intended 14 days. The prisoners ripped their uniforms, and shouted and swore at the guards, who retaliated with fire extinguishers. The guards employed 'divide-and-rule' tactics by playing the prisoners off against each other.
The guards highlighted the difference in social roles by creating plenty of opportunities to enforce the rules and punish even the smallest misdemeanor. One prisoner was released on the first day because he showed symptoms of psychological disturbance. The guards identified more and more closely with their role. Their behavior became more brutal and aggressive, with some of them appearing to enjoy the power they had over prisoners. They found that they, people with power and authority, will often go to extremes of violence and torture that they wouldn't normally do in their regular life. This experiment came to be one of the most unethical experiments ever made because I think that the guards' actions were dehumanizing the prisoners since the guards had power over them. I think that the simulation revealed the power of the situation to influence people’s behavior because this was an experiment, a simulation, and was not at all a real prison where people actually committed crimes.
I agree that this experiment was very powerful and well known today. The people in the experiment weren't actually prisoners or prison guards in real life. However, because the environment that they were in, it began to feel so real. The prison guards were acting very harsh towards the prisoners and didn't seem to feel bad. Because the person who held authority didn't stop the prison guards, they began to think that everything they were doing was okay. Like you said, this experiment shows that people with more power can control other people. They want to follow with what they are told and can take it to a whole new level, like in this experiment,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that when put in these situations, people still act in crazy ways, even though they are only playing a role. Like it was pointed out in the documentary, as soon as the guards got to put on the badge, uniform, and reflective glasses, it was like they were totally different people. It was this idea that they got to mask their identity, so they were able to act in ways without having the prisoner tie a face to the actions, that I believe made them so aggressive. The same can be said for the prisoners though. When the prisoners initially got to the "prison", they were dehumanized, making it feel like the real deal. Between dehumanizing the prisoners and giving the guards a mask, both parties were able to become more aggressive and act in ways they would never think of acting in the real world.
ReplyDeleteI think in general, the effects of having power and authority is negative and is shown clearly through a person's actions. As we saw in the human behavior documentary, soldiers in Abu Dhabi horrifically tortured their detainees without orders but simply the power to do so.
ReplyDeleteWhen analyzing your conclusion of how this experiment portrayed the influence of power upon a person's actions, I could not agree more. The deciding factor of whether the college students would play the role of guards versus prisoners was similar to the flip of a coin, illustrating how the role assignments were randomized, where no factors contributed to the decision of roles. This was forgotten by those who played the roles of guards as they seized to remember their similarity to the supposed criminals. With a lack of consequence to their actions, the guards continued with their immoral and unethical behavior as they began to become blinded of the fact this prison was no more than an experiment. Their beliefs of superiority resulted in physically and mentally harming behavior towards the so believed inferior prisoners. This leads us to question how might one behave in the real world if thrown in a similar situation as the guards? When looking over the Iraq incident covered in class we can recognize how people such as the military shoulders may change when thrown into a similar situation as the guards. As they start to view the prisoners as inferior and are instructed without restrictions or limits in their actions they begin to commit actions that many may struggle to even imagine.
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