The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment
The author of the article “The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment” describes a study that was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues to examine the impact of perceived power (Konnikova, 2015).
Background of the Experiment
The background of the experiment was Zimbardo’s intention to determine the origin of the brutality reported among prison wardens. The investigation was set in an environment that encouraged power struggle between the prison guards and the prisoners after a random selection process conducted by flipping a coin.
The Role of Environment in the Experiment
It became evident that some of the participants had developed their roles in the process and ended up torturing the prisoners who complied to the abuse by the officers because of the role that they assumed. The author focuses on the lessons that the experiment revealed, with the notable outcome being the role played by the environment in which the experiment was set.
Impact on Participants
It became apparent that through assuming the roles and due to the encouragement brought about by the environment, brutality was inevitable. It is outlined that the study participants got carried away by the roles that they had assumed and could not ultimately differentiate between their real and fictional personalities. The prisoners became the victims of guards, who had opted to suspend their life values and were acting in the ugliest ways, depicting the extreme pathological side of human character. The author sums the review by arguing that, “The lesson of Stanford is not that any random human being is capable of descending into sadism and tyranny. It is that certain institutions and environments demand those behaviors—and, perhaps, can change them” (Konnikova, 2015).
Conclusion and Implications
The author’s assessment of the results proved that when people conform to roles applicable in a certain environment, they are likely to change and assume sadistic values. The experiment indicated that people are vulnerable and have the potential to turn into aggressive creatures when they are coerced by the environment or by an external authority, which was proved by the fact that the guards were behaving in an aggressive way and forgetting that they whole concept was stage-managed, while the selection was purely random in nature. The fact that the prisoners had similarly internalized their roles and ended up accepting their fictional positions, with some even arguing that they would consider parole, indicates that they were carried away with the experiment as well.
The learning concept that I focused on in relation to the experiment was that the environment is a critical element in defining situational attribution. To some extent, the scenario resembled Milgram Experiment, which was similarly designed with the goal of understanding how people were willing to torture others just because they had received instructions to do so. It follows that the human nature tends to be subjective to the authority and environment under which it is placed. However, the ethical nature of the designer’s decision to conduct such an experiment is a matter of concern since from the statements that the guards and the prisoners were making, it is clear that there was little regard to the moral considerations. The guards were demonstrating tendencies that were so sadistic in nature that one would immediately note that they had been affected by the experiment in a damaging manner. It is likely that the setting of the experiment was focused not on investigative purposes, but rather on changing the subjects into making them assume extreme characters. However, considering the positive aspects of the study that was undertaken allows to realize that the human nature is particularly vulnerable, especially in extreme situations.
Reference
Konnikova, M. (2015). The real lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The New Yorker. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment
