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What would you do if you had the power? The "Stanford Jail" experiment

There are many psychological experiments of which we have spoken to you in Science Daily Online and that have been carried out throughout the history of mankind, many of them brutal, like the one carried out in the Stanford jail .Keep reading!

The Stanford jail experiment was conducted in the year 1971 , at the hands of the psychologist Phillip Zimbardo , his aim: to evaluate the impact that it entailed for a person to be a prisoner or guard inside a jail.

What did it consist of?

Zimbardo, a psychologist who had been a professor at Stanley Milgram, who was known for his obedience experiment, in which he used electric shocks when a student failed a question.Zimbardo was interested to expand his student's research to understand how the variables of place affect human behavior.

In the experiment we wanted to check how the volunteers They reacted in an environment that looked like a prison. The psychologist tried to investigate whether people who were "good" could continue to have this character in an evil environment and how the roles that a person must fulfill influence their attitude.

What would you do if you had the power? The

The prison was simulated within the psychology area of ​​Stanford University and 24 student volunteers were selected, chosen from 70 people who did not they had psychological or physical problems, so that they could act as guards and prisoners.The guards were specified that they should not use physical violence, but if the objective of provoking feelings of helplessness in prisoners was emphasized, to make it clear that they were guards who sent at all times.The prisoners, for their part, received an unexpected visit for them, but controlled by Zimbardo, from police officers who accused them of robbery and ended up in the jail created by the psychologist.

The intended duration of the experiment was weeks, but the truth is that on the sixth day it had to be stopped because appeared inhuman, vexatious and unworthy attitudes on the part of the guards towards the prisoners, my ntras increasingly adopted extremely submissive behavior , after trying to rebel in the first instance and be hard and psychologically manipulated, trying to please the guards at all times.

What would you do if you had the power? The

The result was that 5 prisoners abandoned the experiment , because they suffered stress and anxiety constantly.Very few could continue enduring the treatment they were given.Even Zimbardo temporarily lost his sanity and was not aware of the unpleasant behavior of the guards, until Christina Maslach, a university student, severely rejected the experiment.

Conclusion

The psychologist concluded that the behavior of a person depends on the situations they go through.Also that the human being adapts easily to the roles he adopts , worrying for fulfilling them, especially if they relate to power.

Do you know this experiment led by Zimbardo? What do you think of its conclusion? If you found it interesting, we recommend: «The terrible` Monster experiment ´ «.

Image: Jeff Keacher.

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