zimbardo

Zimbardo Experiment Thoughts

The prison experiment discussed in this video involves a group of male college students who were later spilt into two completely different roles, prisoners and guards. This experiment, done in Stanford University, was supposed to last two weeks, but only lasted about four to the duress and severity the “prisoners” were put through. Dr. Zimbardo conducted the experiment in such a manner where everything was realistic; they formed a mock prison in the basement of a psychology building, the students were arrested as if actual criminals, and they were given uniforms depending on whether they were prisoners or guards.
It was found that though none of the students were either a prisoner or a guard, they were acting like it and placed into their roles rather quickly, especially the guards. The guards abused their power continuously by torturing the prisoners. They would sometimes take away their mattresses, lock them in small rooms without a light for hours, clean toilets with their bare hands, or use numbers to identify them. The problem was that those in charge, completely dehumanized the prisoners even though they did nothing wrong. This ultimately caused the “prisoners” to become mentally unstable for time being and a similar of this type was outlawed.
What Zimbardo wanted to test in this experiment was the power of authority; does it matter who is in control? Since it was known that the participants did nothing wrong, would they be treated equally amongst each other, or would there be a shift in control? The latter occurred, thus proving that people conform to their society rather than relying on the truth or humanity. Though his experiment was remarkable in the field of psychology, a huge weakness is that it caused the participants depression, anxiety, and other mental issues. This controlled experiment was not ethically correct, especially considering that it only lasted a couple of days, as opposed to the two weeks. Also,