Question

Chapter 13 Questions:

Go to Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Simulation. Tell us what you found there, and what you think about it.

Zimbardo Prison Experiment

Answer 1

Stanford prison experiment was conducted by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo in the year 1971. The experiment was between two group prisoners and guards, to see the psychological effect on the receiver. Talking more about the experiment, it turned out to be harsh and brutal as the guards were behaving like real guards and treating the prisoners as real culprits. Prisoners were treated very badly by the guards and this lead to have psychological effect on prisoners and they lost confidence in them, heart break and mental trauma.These prisoners and guards were college going students, and they were only used for creating the prison scene and the experiment was supposed to last for two weeks but the behaviour of the guards with prisoners was so realistic and brutal that the experiment was shut in six days.

The experiment shows that if a person is giving powers without any restriction he can be the most brutal animal on the planet. Although the experiment intention was to see psychological effect but it turned out to be a shocker for the people and after this experiment no such experiments were allowed and it was banned.

This shows the reality of prisoners who are in real prison, how they are treated in the jail. The experiment was called unethical by many as it was clearly mention by Zimbardo that anyone can leave in between if they feel like leaving but he didn't allow them after the experiment was over.