Two psychological experimenters attempted to uncover the most brutal area of the human brain in their articles: Milgram 's "The Perils of Obedience" and Zimbardo 's "The Stanford Prison Experiment". The first and earliest of these experimenters was Stanley Milgram, who conducted his experiments at Yale University. He starts the article with information on testing whether or not a person would administer painful—and eventually lethal—shocks to other people when given the order by an authoritative person in the room with the ‘teacher’. His results were indeed surprising: twenty-five people out of forty administered lethal shocks when instructed. He includes excerpts from the experiment to add to his argument. The most shocking point he makes,
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Guards were banned from physically abusing prisoners, but they performed forms of psychological torture. The study, which was supposed to last two weeks, Zimbardo writes, had to be cut short at six days due to the condition of the prisoners. Zimbardo is shocked at the state of both the prisoners and guards. Both Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s experiments show that anyone can present sadistic tendencies under extreme circumstances, and the differences between positive and negative peer pressure, and how they effect choices.
The shock the world experienced after Stanley Milgram published his study was revisited when Philip Zimbardo published his study, the “Stanford Prison Experiment”. In both studies, test subjects developed sadistic tendencies, and these symptoms were shown in an outward manner, whether it be through laughing, smiling, or journaling about the pleasures of being in power (). Although Milgram denies that his subjects were, in fact, deriving pleasure from inflicting pain on others, his subjects show peculiar signs of gratification through maltreating another person: “I don’t know if you were watching me, but my reactions were giggly, and trying to stifle laughter. This isn’t how I usually am.”() This quote, from Mr. Braverman,
Guards were banned from physically abusing prisoners, but they performed forms of psychological torture. The study, which was supposed to last two weeks, Zimbardo writes, had to be cut short at six days due to the condition of the prisoners. Zimbardo is shocked at the state of both the prisoners and guards. Both Milgram’s and Zimbardo’s experiments show that anyone can present sadistic tendencies under extreme circumstances, and the differences between positive and negative peer pressure, and how they effect choices.
The shock the world experienced after Stanley Milgram published his study was revisited when Philip Zimbardo published his study, the “Stanford Prison Experiment”. In both studies, test subjects developed sadistic tendencies, and these symptoms were shown in an outward manner, whether it be through laughing, smiling, or journaling about the pleasures of being in power (). Although Milgram denies that his subjects were, in fact, deriving pleasure from inflicting pain on others, his subjects show peculiar signs of gratification through maltreating another person: “I don’t know if you were watching me, but my reactions were giggly, and trying to stifle laughter. This isn’t how I usually am.”() This quote, from Mr. Braverman,