The highly unethical nature of this experiment is quite apparent, in the film and in the actual experiment itself. Starting with deception, it was evident since the start of the study when the participants were made unaware of their random assignment and led to believe that their roles were based on their nature.
Demand characteristics were briefly seen when the experimenter told the guards that they expected them to show their authority and discipline the prisoners
Furthermore, there is somewhat lack of informed consent. In textbook terms, informed consent means that the participants should have information about the experiment and also know the risks and costs involved. Since Dr. Zimbardo himself did not expect things to go out of hand, …show more content…
There came a point when the prisoners began to accept the prison as real and there was no way they could get out of it. Their belief further strengthened when a priest was brought in and he questioned them about whether they’ve contacted their lawyer and thought of ways to get out of this prison.
The 2015 movie “Stanford Prison Experiment” is a dramatized re-enactment of the original experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, to discover the effect of an institution and social roles on the behaviour of an individual.
The movie begins with an advertisement placed in the newspaper to recruit college students as subjects. These students then undergo interviews with the experimenters, after which they are randomly assigned the roles of either prisoners or guards. The guards, however, are told that their recruitment was based on the remarkable qualities depicted in the interview. They were deceived into believing they were better than the prisoner recruits.
The ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Guard’ social roles were reinforced by the attire that they adopted. The guards were dressed in identical khaki uniforms, with a whistle around their neck, a baton, and most significantly, reflective sunglasses which made eye contact with the prisoners impossible- thus embracing the stereotypical appearance of a
Demand characteristics were briefly seen when the experimenter told the guards that they expected them to show their authority and discipline the prisoners
Furthermore, there is somewhat lack of informed consent. In textbook terms, informed consent means that the participants should have information about the experiment and also know the risks and costs involved. Since Dr. Zimbardo himself did not expect things to go out of hand, …show more content…
There came a point when the prisoners began to accept the prison as real and there was no way they could get out of it. Their belief further strengthened when a priest was brought in and he questioned them about whether they’ve contacted their lawyer and thought of ways to get out of this prison.
The 2015 movie “Stanford Prison Experiment” is a dramatized re-enactment of the original experiment carried out by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, to discover the effect of an institution and social roles on the behaviour of an individual.
The movie begins with an advertisement placed in the newspaper to recruit college students as subjects. These students then undergo interviews with the experimenters, after which they are randomly assigned the roles of either prisoners or guards. The guards, however, are told that their recruitment was based on the remarkable qualities depicted in the interview. They were deceived into believing they were better than the prisoner recruits.
The ‘Prisoner’ and ‘Guard’ social roles were reinforced by the attire that they adopted. The guards were dressed in identical khaki uniforms, with a whistle around their neck, a baton, and most significantly, reflective sunglasses which made eye contact with the prisoners impossible- thus embracing the stereotypical appearance of a