Philip Zimbardo Research Paper

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo conducted one of the most infamous experiments known to this day as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Its objective was to understand the effects prisons can have on human behaviour. Zimbardo, together with his research team hypothesized that in a prison environment, the personality traits that are inherent in a person are chiefly responsible for abusive behaviour. His research participants were twenty-four male college students who attended Stanford University. They were interviewed and screened to ensure that they had no criminal records, medical conditions or any psychological disorders. Through a random coin flip, half of the participants were then given the role of prisoner, while the other half were given the role
In terms of human behavior, it showed us that people have the capability to abuse their power. We saw the results of this experiment as a necessary evil in the field of psychology. The experiment had turn out to be unethical without a doubt, but we believe that its enormous contribution to science and to life compensated for the risks of the research participants considering also, that there were no permanent harmful effects to the participants. Unfortunately, the participants became the sacrificial lamb although no one would wish to put anyone in the same situation that these participants experienced. It could be said that this study saved so many future research participants in research. This experiment is just one example of humanity at its core. The degree to which these so called "prisoners" were treated was nothing if you compare it to something that did happen in the past: the holocaust. It enabled us to understand the importance of ethics and proper protocol. In this study, it did not have many limitations, thus, it was able to produce a sense of rawness in human