Stanford Prison Experiment

A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University

Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. 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.


How we went about testing these questions and what we found may astound you. Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. Please join me on a slide tour describing this experiment and uncovering what it tells us about the nature of human nature.

--Philip G. Zimbardo

Source

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted at Stanford University from August 14 to August 20 of 1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo.[1] It was funded by the US Office of Naval Research[2] and was of interest to both the US Navy and Marine Corps as an investigation into the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners.

Twenty-four male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. Certain portions of the experiment were filmed and excerpts of footage are publicly available.

Conclusions

On August 20, 1971, Zimbardo announced the end of the experiment to the participants. The results of the experiment have been argued to demonstrate the impressionability and obedience of people when provided with a legitimizing ideology and social and institutional support. The experiment has also been used to illustrate cognitive dissonance theory and the power of authority.

The results of the experiment favor situational attribution of behavior rather than dispositional attribution. In other words, it seemed that the situation, rather than their individual personalities, caused the participants' behavior. Under this interpretation, the results are compatible with the results of the Milgram experiment, in which ordinary people fulfilled orders to administer what appeared to be agonizing and dangerous electric shocks to a confederate of the experimenter.

Shortly after the study had been completed, there were bloody revolts at both the San Quentin and Attica prison facilities, and Zimbardo reported his findings on the experiment to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary.

en.wikipedia.org...

PDF file

The evidence presents that the Materialistic model has failed in relation to Consciousness.

Any thoughts?

en.wikipedia.org...

My theory is that the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment prove that most people are psychopaths. I blame capitalism.

reply to post by HenryNorris


Was just going to say the same, you beat me to it! Star for you.

reply to post by Kashai


This is what happens when people give up their inner organic light and follow the orders of others. Their inner light of doing what THEY feel is right needs to be stronger than some random authority, otherwise we'll have Hitlers and people like this all over the place...

Originally posted by HenryNorris
en.wikipedia.org...

My theory is that the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment prove that most people are psychopaths. I blame capitalism.

People who live under communism will likely disagree.

It gets worst, when materialism controlled Psychiatry this was the result....







Any thoughts?

Originally posted by HenryNorris
en.wikipedia.org...

My theory is that the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment prove that most people are psychopaths. I blame capitalism.

edit on 12-1-2013 by HenryNorris because: (no reason given)

The number of psycopaths im Communist societies???

en.wikipedia.org...

rexcurry.net...


Any thoughts?

These experiments have nothing to do with materialism, rather they expose the outcome of authoritarian parenting and teaching methods.

People are conditioned from an early age to respect authority in terms of parents "go to your room" and teachers "go to the corner" while disobedience results in harsher consequences - Milgram.

This is actually interesting, as far as I know there are no studies on this, but from what I can see, people who are in authority are taught to believe their rules are absolute truths - I will speak to a couple of psychologists I know next time I see them.

I believe the Soviet Gulag prison network was a pretty brutal place in it's own right. Political philosophy doesn't have much to do with sadism in authorities, IMO.

Originally posted by Dispo
These experiments have nothing to do with materialism, rather they expose the outcome of authoritarian parenting and teaching methods.

People are conditioned from an early age to respect authority in terms of parents "go to your room" and teachers "go to the corner" while disobedience results in harsher consequences - Milgram.

This is actually interesting, as far as I know there are no studies on this, but from what I can see, people who are in authority are taught to believe their rules are absolute truths - I will speak to a couple of psychologists I know next time I see them.

It has, given the fat that Materialism relates to humans biologically.....These methodologies should not result to torture by educated people, especially given these experiments were voluntary. The human should conform if all there is to observe in validity, is the the brain and its biology as we today comprehend it. You see for the most parts dogs, elephants, tigers chimps, dolphins conform to this type of treatment.

I mean that given the whole thing was voluntary “prisoners” went on hunger strikes out of concern of other volunteers.

Humans simply do not respond the same way as animals we can think outside the box...

Any thoughts?

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
I believe the Soviet Gulag prison network was a pretty brutal place in it's own right. Political philosophy doesn't have much to do with sadism in authorities, IMO.

Cleary the topic is in relation to Human Psychology

reply to post by Kashai

Yes indeed... The concept of Capitalism and Materialism were mentioned and wouldn't generally seem to be a relevant thing. The Gulags just show how universal it is for jailers to be little better than animals all over the world.

This experiment itself though is certainly an enlightening one on basic human behavior. I think it says a lot about the whole 'us / them' mentality and superiority mindset that develops in record time. The problem would be how to apply that to the actual systems the nation runs this was trying to model.

How to remove the darker sides of behavior from the guard side of it all, as the study does show above all else exists, is the hardest part.

There's a reason that police departments only hire low I.Q. individuals that will blindly follow orders instead of the law... the entire judicial system has no interest in justice... that's just America today...

Most of my buddies went through college... got themselves Criminal Justice degrees... then went on to become officers/guards/etc... they would brag about their misuse/abuse of power to me as though they thought I would be impressed instead of what I actually was which was disgusted...

Fact of the matter is most politicians exhibit the same qualities and have the benefit of the knowledge they are above the law... throw in narcissistic personalities and hunger for power and you get what we have now which is a totalitarian government based not on the rule of law but the make it up as they go horsecrap where as long as you're "your brothers keeper" you don't ever have to worry about a thing... but wake up one day and ask yourself "what am I doing... this is wrong" and it's going to all be downhill from there for you...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Say for example you did something and I felt it was for your own good to change that behavior.

Torturing you is not going to change your mind, In the Stanford Prison experiment that was established with a miriad of responses Materialist were not ready for. Authorities responded with violence,which is indicative of a model that has failed.

Keep in mind that in general everyone involved had an IQ of 160 or above. These were individuals working on there Masters Degree and as well those who has PHD's.

From there, is also the matter of the mental heath system that collapsed like a wet taco, throughout the world. This being in the 60's and in relation to a system throughout the world that supported a materialist model.

Any thoughts?

reply to post by Dispo


Check out the work of Robert Altemeyer on the Authoritarian Personality.
After WWII, social scientists began to address the causality of Hitler's rise to power, authoritarianism is what they termed the mindset of his followers. My readings of his work lead me to believe the authoritarian personality underlies all that is "elitist" whether financially, socially, racially, ethnically, religiously....

ganjoa

I think the man who said "power corrupts.....absolute power corrupts absolutely,"
has stated a law......
The BULK of humanity would react similarly in EITHER ROLE.......
Given a certain adjustment period, which may be longer for some than others.....
I honestly believe its that freakin simple.....

Originally posted by stirling
I think the man who said "power corrupts.....absolute power corrupts absolutely,"
has stated a law......
The BULK of humanity would react similarly in EITHER ROLE.......
Given a certain adjustment period, which may be longer for some than others.....
I honestly believe its that freakin simple.....

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

'The text is a favourite of collectors of quotations and is always included in anthologies.

www.phrases.org.uk...

This in no way can be construed as a Law.


Actually its not that simple. In the case of the mental health patients the problem no longer exist because the materialist psychiatric method was taken out of the equation.. Also changes in relation to the prison system were implemented in the US. World wide today there really is no such thing as a government mental heath facility that practices the Materialist Ethic (behavior modification, operant conditioning, Skinneran or Pavlovian Psychology and Behavior Modification). In relation to Private Facilities the last such program was closed in disgrace about 5 years ago in the US. I seriously doubt you will find anything like it in Europe or for that matter anywhere else in the world.

If Psychiatry and Psychology were a house Materialist currently have no permission to enter the Kitchen., or deal with any decisions whatsoever. Further, in effect Materialism has no realistic possibility of generating an answer that would change that status. This is directly related to issue with respect to specifically addressing the brain and mind as simply a biological entity. Let me emphasis this...what we know today about Biology is insufficient to explain how the brain delivers a mind. Today in the context of Nero science, we are finding incredible things with respect to dissecting the brains of common house flies We are no where near understanding what is going on in the human brain.

Any thoughts?

Originally posted by HenryNorris
en.wikipedia.org...

My theory is that the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment prove that most people are psychopaths. I blame capitalism.

edit on 12-1-2013 by HenryNorris because: (no reason given)

How can you blame capitalism? You would have to do the same experiment in a socialist country to be able to draw that conclusion. My theory is that the results would be the same. It's the intoxicating nature of power on Human beings. The study is a fascinating look at the human psyche, always makes me wonder how I would personally react in a similar study. I have a bad feeling that I am quite sugestible and could be easily manipulated.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Actually in China and Russia during the 40's ,50's and 60's Materialist Psychiatric models were aplied.

This model is no longer applied worldwide and because they discovered the same problem.

The incident Geraldo Rivera reported and is offered in this thread pretty much resulted in similar investigations throughout the world. To be clear the world no longer applies the Materialist agenda, with regards to treatment in psychiatric faculties. In effect a test of a population has occurred and realistically there is a problem with materialism in this regard.

Any thoughts?

Originally posted by Kashai


Keep in mind that in general everyone involved had an IQ of 160 or above.

Could you show me the source of that claim ?

That would be regarded as `genius-level` intelligence.