Stanford prison experiment

[lifewitlooie]

My professor told us about this experiment in class the other day.

College students took the role of guards and inmates just to see what would happen and they quickly assimilated into their stereotypical roles. It was meant to be a safe research experiment but turned out to be pretty dangerous.

Makes you think that maybe our prison system doesnt work very well

Stanford prison experiment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[lifewitlooie]

The students quickly began acting out their roles, with "guards" becoming sadistic and "prisoners" showing extreme passivity and depression. Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and four had to be removed from the experiment early