Zimbardo And Prison Brutality

What was it? Fascinated by Milgram study on how far he could push people to cause harm when being coached, Philip Zimbardo set out to see if prison brutality was caused by the prison environment or by the sadistic personality of prison guards. Zimbardo advertised in the newspaper looking volunteers to participate in an experiment observing the psychological effect of prison life. The experiment was planned to last two weeks with each candidate being paid 15 dollars a day. Before being selected each candidate was interviewed to make sure they were mentally and physically capable to participate in the experiment. Zimbardo and his team then converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. He turned offices into small prisons rooms with only a few beds inside. Half the candidates were then given the role as prisoner and the other half guards and Dr. Zimbardo assumed the role of prison superintendent. Procedure The “Prisoners” were arrested in their homes without warning and were taken to a police station to be finger printed and booked. Then they were blindfolded and taken to the …show more content…
Zimbardo did show that people would probably conform to the roles they are expected to play, especially if there is strong stereotype already in place. But if Zimbardo was going to be a part of the experiment by being the prison superintendent he should have had an impartial psychologist come to oversee the whole thing. Thankfully Zimbardo`s colleague was able to pull him to his senses and he ended the experiment. Despite not fitting his criteria, if I had seen the advertisement I would have not tried to participate. Prison life is something I wish to never experiment even in a mock