Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Stanford Prison Experiment


Please click on this link to read about one of the most controversial experiments of our time: The Stanford prison experiment. Read meticulously, as some of the most fascinating (and disturbing) elements of this experiment are in the little details.


When you have finished reading, I'd like you to use the blog to respond to what you have read. I'm not going to give you guiding questions this time; instead, I'd like you to ask your own questions and offer your own, authentic responses. Tomorrow in class we will be connecting this experiment to The Crucible.


Remember that the blog is space to have a conversation, so read others' comments, respond to others' questions, and react to others' reactions.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can connect this experiment with The Crucible. The people in the experiments and the characters on The Crucible have something in common. They internalized. In The Crucible, once Abigail and other girls shouting witchcraft, no one even bothered to look for other answers. Soon, most people started believing that Saleem was witched. The same with the experiment. The participants were treated so brutally, that they started believing that they indeed were prisoners.
I can also relate the guard "John Wayne", to Abigail William in the the book. Since most prison guards starting being sadist, i believe maybe Abigail was sadist(not as much as the prisoners) herself. She accused many of being withes, when she knew what would happen to them once she opened her mouth. Maybe she liked seeing those people getting hurt?
The other thing that struck me as odd, was when everyone starting looking at Prisoner 416 as a "troublemaker". It makes me wonder, if we are doing the same thing in our society right now. Are the people we see as troublemakers actually the sensible ones, and we are the one "following the crowd" and being internalized to the society we live in?

juliab said...

I'll get the ball rolling. I saw a pretty obvious parallel between how quickly the girls in The Crucible molded into their story, and how quickly the guards and prisoners did too. I also thought it was interesting how even though they weren't really guards and prisoners, they tricked themselves into thinking that they were actually in a real prison. and doing these tasks like they were actually criminals. This made me start to think that maybe some of the interrogated women/men in Salem tricked themselves into believing that they actually had meddled in witchcraft, possibly because everybody else thought they did.

Anonymous said...

This story was really creepy. I was disgusted by the conditions of the jail and the tasks the prisoners had to do (clean the bathrooms with their hands!). Even though I feel this experiment was completely unethical, the results were very interesting. Here are some questions I thought about.

How could the guards carry out these horrible acts without any revolting or questioning the experiment?

I think the fact that all the guards were doing this, made it easier for them to not question their actions. There were also no rules (except phisycal violence) to restrict the guards. In their little world they were doing nothing wrong. They were given power and no restrictions or consequences along with that power. I think that this combonation causes the evil in all people to emerge.

How could things go so wrong in only 6 days?

This experiment was scheduled to last 2 weeks but was shut down in 6 days. I think this was because the guards kept searching for more and more power. THe sad thing was they kept getting more. I can also connect this back to a discussion in class that curiousity of the unknown leads humans to commit evil acts. The guards had never had this much power and control and coundn't wait to see how they could use it.

kyle said...

This experiment was really interesting, but a lot of the conclusions from this experiment could be drawn without the experiment. There are examples all over of people who have power and how they use it in somewhat "sadistic" ways. Take school for example, teachers have all the power. They can make you do tons of homework, or speak in front of the class (even if your scared of doing so), and can even make fun of you in front of everybody. Some teachers use this power, and seem very evil, while other choose to be nice and really help students, just as some guards were very sadistic and others were kinder and did favors for prisoners. There are always people who are bullies and show some evil when they have power and others who aren't, which can be seen without this experiment.

On a different note, does anyone else wonder how this kind of experiment is legal?

Can anyone think of any other experiment that would show that there is sadism or evil in everybody or most people?

shaunam said...

The prisoners in this controversy were almost exactly like the girls in The Crucible. Once one character started feeling symptoms and acting, the rest forced themselves to believe it as well, which is exactly like what happened in the Standford Experiment. I think that it is fascinating how the human mind can trick itself into believing something that is later looked upon as either ridiculous or completely evil.
Kyle, in responce to your question, I think that it was legal at first because they just wanted some results to the study, but after only six days it spiraled out of control and luckily it was able to be stopped. I personally think that it should have been stopped right when personal damage was inflicted on some of the prisoners.
I also like what Sweta said at the end of her comment. Also, it makes alot of sense because if we didn't ever have people like MLK Jr. and Rosa Parks, who were willing to take a stand even if they were standing alone, the world would be very different today.
I also agree with Lara. I was surprised that it only took six days for an experiment to go so horribly wrong.

As for my question, why didn't they terminate the experiment right when they could tell that the play acting was getting out of hand?

erinl said...

I agree with Kyle with the conclusions of the experiment. I feel that the experiment did not draw any conclusions that could not have been predicted. I agree with Julia that it is interesting that how the both of the stories took a dramatic turn for the worse.
I think that it was extremely odd how the people that volunteered became so active in the experiment. They took the actual rolls of the people in a real prison and their actions were out of control. I completely agree with what Laura said in how the guards tricked themselves into believing they had all this power likwise, in The Crucible how people convinced others into believing in witchcraft.

Unknown said...

I agree with Sweta and Julia’s connections to The Crucible, and, like Lara, I thought it was really interesting how the guards became so brutal and the prisoners so accepting of the brutality in only 6 days. It makes me wonder if all humans are so easily persuaded that violence and mistreatment are acceptable and even normal. I also thought that this connected to The Crucible because although some people, like Parris, were initially doubtful that the “illness” in Salem was caused by witchcraft, they very quickly became convinced of it, just as the prisoners and guards quickly accepted the horrible physical and emotional conditions of the prison and became convinced that they were actually real guards and prisoners. Also, the Wikipedia article said that most of the guards were unhappy when the experiment ended early. This reminded me of Danforth and Hawthorne in The Crucible because they seemed opposed to the end of the witch trials, and seemed determined to hang anyone that had the least bit of suspicion cast upon them. The Stanford prison experiment also connected to our discussions in class about what evil is, and if it dwells within us or is an external force. In the case of the guards, I think that the evil dwelled within them, because they only really became cruel people when given the opportunity to rule over and humiliate others lower than them. The prisoners were interesting because they also were affected, but their problem was that they did not recognize the difference between good and evil anymore and became accepting of the suffering and mistreatment to which they were subjected.
Some questions I had were:

Why did Zimbardo (the leader of the experiment that acted as superintendent of the prison) not take any action to stop the events occurring in the prison? Did he also become desensitized to the cruelty in the prison?

In the article it said that more than fifty outside people had seen the prison, and had no objections, but that Zimbardo’s girlfriend, Christina Maslach, was the only one who questioned the prison’s morality. What does this say about humanity? Why did only one person out of fifty recognize the evil in the experiment?

emilya said...

I think its strange how the gaurds are given mirrored sunglasses to prevent eye contact. Why would the experiment include this?

I also wondered why these people would volunteer to do this. The pay wasn't even that great.

This kind of reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 with these people being totally powerless and the greater people having total control.

I agree with juliab how these people really did believe they were prisoners and suffered mentall and physically because of it. This connects to The Crucible because maybe those who were accused really did believe after a while they were witches. They were put under so much pressure and force they could not think for themselves.

Kyle... i think it was legal in the beginning before things started and before these people believe this was all true.

EMMA_B said...

The main question I developed from of the Stanford prison experiment article, was on a more personal level. I couldn't help but wonder: if I had been part of the experiment, would I have been a "prisoner" that rebelled against the unreasonably cruel actions of the "guards"? Obviously, I would like to THINK that I would go down swinging, just like prisoner 416 did. However, how could 24 strong, mentally stable young men all give in to the harsh situation? And, how can people be so easily convinced of their status, only according to others?

I also noticed a direct connection to The Crucible. (But not the connection most of the other people have made.) In the very beginning of Act 4, Tituba and Sarah Goodman have not only accepted their punishment for something they were (most likely) not guilty for, but actually began to fully embrace and believe that they were going to Hell for performing witchcraft. While I read their conversations, I noticed that they had practically broken down, and allowed themselves to be basically brainwashed. Both women acted as though they indeed deserved to go to Hell, and welcomed the thought of going "home" to the Devil. Tituba and Sarah Goodman acted almost exactly like the prisoners in the experiment acted. The prisoners allowed others to put them in their place, and then just go along with it.


(The only funny thought I could think of while reading the story, was that if I was put into a similar situation, I would probably try my best to make it realsitic. But, I would most likely end up laughing if I attempted to be cruel to the "prisoners.")

krump said...

Lara--I'm with you on the horrible but still really interesting feeling about this experient. I think that maybe the guards kept it up because they liked that feeling of power, and they were being paid for it. But still, if I were a guard, I think the treatment of the prisonors would really bother me.

I think that the prisonors really didn't like the experiment at all, and that's why they rioted after only one day. But it almost seems like they weren't allowed to choose to stop, so the guards cracked down on their punishments, making it seem more and more like a real prison. I think that going into it, no one really understood what they were really going into, but once they were there, they were there to stay.

Another question I had was out of the 50 people that had seen this "prison," why did only one speak up?

Emily A-- I think they were volunteer just to see what it's like to be in prison without actually being in prison. Before reading this, I thought it would be interesting to try.

Kyle--I think it was legal because all the prisonors gave signed consent. Still though I don't think that's really fair because I'm sure if they knew exactly what they were signing, they wouldn't sign.

Emma--Awesome connection, I was actually thinking the same thing. It's like Tituba and Sarah Goodman were feeling like because they can't reverse their accusations, they should just do all they could to stay alive, much like the prisonors when they refused to give 416 their blankets.

Whew this is a cool conversation, it was a great find Mrs. Leclaire!

jberry said...

I agree with Shauna's comment.
This experiment shows that humans are followers.
We do things that others do because "everyone else is". We hate to be lonely and want to feel wanted. It's the greatest thing in the world to have someone there with you.... and the things humans do in order to be alike someone else is remarkable.

Annika_EP said...

The first thing that just comes to mind after I read about this was 1984. Can we PLEASE just get away from this creepy brainwashing?? Just kidding, but I still do find it horribly creepy.
Prisoner 416 was just trying to stand up for what he thought was right, and everyone else looked down on him for it. What is this telling us?!?
Emma, I think you had a really good point about Tituba and Sarah Good and just allowing themselves to really think they were evil. This also relates to the other girls in the village, because they were just allowing Abigail to walk all over them. Much like the guards actions to the prisoners.
Maria, I do agree that I think I would be bothered by the treatment I was giving prisoners. But really, once someone gets in a position of power, it kind of can take them over. Do you think you would have enough self-control?
Finally, my question. As I was writing my comment to Maria's comment above, I saw a huge connection between that and what I wrote in my definition of evil. I said it is a loss of self-control. And if these guards lost their self-control and were overtaken by power, do you think they are indeed evil? Or merely pawns in the game?

Damian L. said...

I believe the use of sunglasses on the "guards" helped them feel less attached and allowed more cruelty to come out and still make it seem to them that they weren't committing these acts. It gives them a sense of watching through another's eyes. Also T.V. and movies show guards always with sunglasses on helping make it more real for the prisoners. It also blocks the guard’s souls from being seen by the prisoners. This can be a good or bad thing, it's bad because if their eyes showed cruelty or even madness who knows what would have happened to the prisoner's psyche. But it would have been good if the eyes showed mercy or compassion. It almost makes the guards not human.

Also what Emma said about guard 416, he was brought in later seeing what was happening to all the "prisoners" with a clear mind. This makes a great difference because all the others we're arrested and saw no one else questioned their charge or entrapment, so why should they. The only time they had the guts to do it was during the riot and that ended all too quickly. This easily shows that most would be lost without a leader. Prisoner 416 was this leader, but failed to rally everyone. Except the one that gave up his blanket. I related this to The Crucible by Prisoner 416 is Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, and all others who didn't confess. Giving their lives to try and stop the non-sense of it all and show everyone the truth. Also the prisoner who gave up his blanket is Hale who was with the crowd, but broke off.

My main questions are: What if all the people involved were women? Would the treatment vary? Would they take parole instead of staying in the experiment?

tanal said...

When I first started reading about the Stanford Prison Experiment, I was so shocked with what I was reading, but as I kept reading on I just got more and more disturbed. I couldn't believe that these people had volunteered to participate in this experiment just to make what they thought was an easy 75 dollars. I also thought this was kind of eerie. When I read the part about all of the prisoners having assigned numbers instead of names, this reminded me of The Holocaust in how all of the prisoners had numbers tattooed onto them. I also thought that it was very interesting how the 24 people chosen to participate were all white, middle-class men. Why weren't any other races of females used in this experiment?

This connects to The Crucible in the same sense of "evil". Throughout some of our readings from this year, evil seems to be a trend, and I think this continues through this experiment.

Julia- I really like your idea and connection between The Crucible and this experiment in that the people during the witch trials could have tricked themselves and each other just as easily as the people in the experiment did.

Anonymous said...

My question for Emma is would you really have a choice to try and not go along with the guards. I mean if you are mentally abused, harassed, and degraded what else do you have left to fight with. When people physically beat you I think it is easier to over come and get through it because you still may have your sanity. When I first read this article I thought about the Holocaust and how many people were physically and mentally degraded because of how they looked or their religion. It was crazy that the experiment was not even real and the people ended pretty messed up. I can’t imagine what the Holocaust survivors are still feeling after how they were prosecuted.

I am not sure if everyone saw this, but in the picture of the prisoner and the guard I think you can definitely tell who was the prisoner and who was the guard. The man on the left looks like he is almost leaning back and away from the man on the right, in intimidation. It looks like the man on the right feels inferior to the man on the left. Likewise, the man on the right it leaning forward and toward the man on the left in an overbearing manner. It looks like the man on the right looks down on the man on the left. I think that the man on the left was the prisoner and the man on the right was the guard because of how they hold themselves near each other.

I also agree with Crista in the connection of Danforth and Hawthorne with the guards. I also agree with Lara that power and greed can sometimes bring out the evil in people. I think that it also depends on the guards’ personalities and back rounds. During childhood if that guard was denied a lot of power then maybe he took this as a chance to finally have power over someone. However, if someone were used to power maybe they would be just a brutal because they would want more and more.

Sorry for the long blog:-)

Tina L said...

I agree with what Julia says. It is pretty much what I was going to say. Good job, team! And now I will respond to others:

Lara, I like your question because I had one like it too, wondering how things can go so wrong in only 6 days! I am thinking, though, that 6 days seems like a short time for us, but if you are introduced to something and especially if you can do whatever you want, you start to get comfortable in that situation really fast.

Does Kyle not like speaking in front of the class? And I don't really understand why it is legal, either. I also didn't get why the only person who had moral objections was Zimbardo's girlfriend. It's a good thing he cared more about keeping his date than his experiment though!

Shauna, I thought it was interesting that you thought the PRISONERS were related to the girls in the Crucible. The concensus seems to be that Abigail and the others are like the guards, so I wonder if you could explain your idea more. I hadn't thought of that.

I thought about the human mind too, about how it can trick people into believing false situations. This part of the article really stood out to me:

"Zimbardo argued that the prisoner participants had internalized their roles when they accepted parole in exchange for forfeiting all of their experiment-participation pay. Yet, when their paroles were denied, none of the prisoner participants quit the experiment. Zimbardo argued they had no reason for continued participation in the experiment after having lost all monetary compensation, yet they did, because the had internalised the prisoner identity, they thought themselves prisoners, hence, they stayed."

Anyone have anything to say about that one?

[Collin L] said...

I think that if i had been a part of the experiment, i would have resorted to physical violence, in a somewhat mob mentality. I would have started a rebellion. I tend to diffuse authority when they misuse their power over me for worthless tasks. I wonder why no one else had started, a successful rebelion. Were the subjects homeless? because it said they only got 15 dollars a day? I think that this experiment goes against a normal human morals, eventhough it had astonishing results. I think its odd that these conditions came about in less than a week, within the first two days the conditions were horrible.

lauraf said...

I really had a hard time reading about this experiment, knowing that it acutally happened. It's hard to even imagine that acts that horrific could escalate out of a seemingly harmless experiment. And in six days too! For someone to take on the role of a guard and then within a short amount of time, play the part so realistically that it becomes real is just hard to comprehend. Especially knowing that the test subjects were truly innocent and were just chosen to be apart of it. I agree with Lara wondering how someone could carry out such horrific acts for an experiment. The only possible reason I could think of would be for power. And like a lot of people already mentioned is how the girls, especially Abigail, in The Crucible used their accusations of "witchcraft" to obtain power. And then for the "prisoners" to acutally believe they were in the prison for real is like the court and townspeople who believed everything the girls say. Even those who don't believe the supposed witcraft turn away from it's falsehood and go along with everyone else. Those people relate to the onlookers of the experiment, all except the supervisor's girlfriend who questioned the ehtics. It makes me wonder if some people thought about the ethics of it but didn't want to challenge the "authority"?

endsleye said...

I really don't understand what the point of this experiment was. What was the outcome they were looking for? It really doesn't make sense to me. I also think that the guards should have had that much power over the prisoners. I believe that some of the guards forgot this was just an experiment and the prisoners were actually students. Making them sleep naked, taking away bathroom privilages, and everything else that they made them do. I personally doubt that this happens in real prisons. I agree with Sweta, because I can't really connect this to The Crucible either. The only thing that I can think of is that they were condemning innocent people and putting them through pain and harsh conditions. This is really the only thing that comes to my mind.

jessie w said...

I can completely relate to lauraf about having a hard time reading this. I literally felt like I was going to be sick. To think that this resulted from an experiment is just horrifying. It bothered my slightly that the guards got into the whole role-play game so well. Just think, some of them were actually upset that it ended early! I agree that these guys did this for the feeling of having power over another human being. You can’t really get that feeling in the real world quite that easily. I love the connections between Abigail and the guards as well as the court and the prisoners. I think a majority of people probably did think about ethics in this situation, but challenging authority is not an easy task these days. I can only imagine how intimidating the “supervisor” was especially during this wacky experiment. I would think that most people have enough moral background to realize that the little experiment was not a good idea. Zimbardo bothers me. Where do you think he came up with this idea? Do you think this ever became a reality to him? I mean, he wanted to put this into a real prison. That seems to be a bit absurd unless you truly start viewing this experiment as reality.

Kristen F. said...

I think this experiment, as well as The Crucible, shows how easily we can do something so cruel and immortal and do it enough times until it just becomes numb and stops affecting us altogether. The brutality of the experiment seems so gruesome and appalling to us as readers but to the people involved, it seemed so commonplace and typical that the cruelty stopped phasing the guards and the prisoners. When given the power to manipulate other humans in anyway imaginable, like the guards and Abigail had, it is so easy to become selfish and numb to the affects you are having on other people around you. It becomes so difficult to distinguish right from wrong because we so commonly mistake what is right for what is easy. If I were a guard that in this situation, and realized how in over my head I was, I'm not sure I would have the courage to stand up against it because it is so easy to go along with what everyone else was doing. It becomes a dangerous cycle when this sort of power is abused because the longer the curruption is allowed, the more difficult it is to stand up against.

maddyg said...

I think it is pretty clear that Abigail is like the "prison guards". She started out knowing that the people she accused were innocent, but then the evil started to grow inside her and she began to enjoy the power and being able to hurt people. The "prisoners"were also like Tituba and some of the other accused witches. They started out knowing they weren't really witches, but eventually all of the people threatening them and telling them that yes, they were witches, they started to believe it. The same happened to the prisoners. I would also like to ask why someone would ever conduct this experiment? What purpose did the results even serve?

Laine G said...

Wow, how did that much happen so quickly? I think mob mentality plays a HUGE role in all of this as well as the people getting over involved in their roles, coming into the experiment with the mind set and trying to act like the stereotype of their role. In the news all we hear of the prison system in the media is torture in Guantanamo and prison riots across the country. The media concentrates on the bad so all of the people came into the experiment with the mind sets of the "worst case scenarios." I think the people were all just trying to play the role and then having started negatively, they just started acting worse.
Something that makes everyone involved in the experiment similar to the town of salem is that they were merely acting out the stereotypes due to a lack of knowledge of the actual people they were portraying.
Something that I took from The Crucible is that everyone goes on a power trip whenever possible. If there are people willing to listen and follow, then most people will see just how much they can get away. I think that is is human instinct to test the limits. This is why the guards volunteered extra time, they wanted to mess with eh minds of the prisoners even more that they could just during their shifts.
I also thought that is was interesting how a single person was the one to point out how immoral everything that was going was. (The girlfriend and Proctor)

It is crazy what mob mentality causes people to do.
I shall make my exit now, but not without first leaving a great quote.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers.

adamb said...

In this experiment, what interested me was that none of the prisoners quit or even accepted payment. The heads of the experiment did a very complete job of disorienting the prisoners so much, they forgot about why they were there. The guards are just an example of power corrupting. They enjoyed tormenting the prisoners and probably thought they were doing good. This is like the girls do were at first it was just pretense and then they thought they were helping God's cause. Prisoner 416 who was brought in after the experiment started saw what was happening but was pers4ecuted heavily for it. He is similar to Reverend Hale, who was brought, criticized whzt was happening and was persecuted as well.

clewis said...

Yeah I agree with Annika and that this totally reminded me of 1984. This experiment was very creepy, and I thought it to be very inhumane. It also related to the Crucible in that the girls were a lot like the prisoners. Also, Sweta I liked your last comment. It does make ya think huh?

Anonymous said...

In response to emilya question about why the guards had to wear mirrored sunglasses, is that it demoralized the prisoners because they were no longer dealing with people but with tools of the "justice" system and misery. Also, I think that the mirrored sunglasses trapped the guards because they were no longer people and could not judge their own acts of cruelty. Also, the guards could not escape the cycle of prisoner and guard because they lost their sense of individualism, trapping them in the ideas of unity and we, kind of like Prometheus in Anthem by Ayn Rand.

brynnh said...

I found this experiment to be very interesting in the sense thta no one questioned it until after the experiment.These where bright young men who signed up for this experiment. I guess the first question that comes to mind is; Is it human nature to participate in something you feel obligated to even if you know it is wrong? I feel that this is true in many cases. Not only looking at The Crucible, but also looking at high school and life in general. I think that we often take things to farjust for the sake of seeing what happens and feeling a sense of guilt if you want to get out of the situation you are in. I think this is the case in The Crucible as to the girls have no idea what they are doing, except for Abigail, and they go along with it becaus ehtey said yes in the beginning and now they fear saying no to the crazy acusations Abigail has them make. The experiment went much the same way, in that the prisinoers could have easily left the experiment but they felt committed and the guards stayed late because they started to think it was their duty.

saram said...

I agree with Shauna and Jessica's comments. I think that the Standford Prison Experiment and The Crucible are both proving that humans are followers of one another. If one person starts acting a certain way, everyone follows them and does the same thing. No one wants to feel like the odd man out. Both stories are perfect examples of how most things we feel are mental. For example, you might not being feeling sick at all, but if you think about it for a long enough time, think that you are actually getting sick or see someone else that is sick, you most likely will get sick! It's really remarkable to me how the human mind can trick itself. The prisoners and gaurds started to act like they were actually in a prison. The characters in The Crucible all act the same because they feel that is the way they are supposed to act, even if they know it is wrong. I'm just completely puzzled as to how the mind can be tricked so easily.

Alex_Manning said...

Blast having no internet at home for two nights straight!

I'm not sure why everyone is so appalled at this experiment. I thought more of Lord Of the Flies than the Crucuble. The raw sense of early human instinct was more present to me than anything having to do with the idiocy in The Crucible. I think this was a very relevant experiment now, with the horrible images of the Abu-Grahib prison scandal. It just goes to show that humans are more than capable of forgetting the civil world.
thats all.