Blog #15: Article 5!

The last article I chose to read was called “Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: a Lesson in the Power of Situation” written by Philip G. Zimbardo. This article discussed a series of studies done in the 1970s that were about establishing the social power of groups. It talked about how smart people make stupid choices when they are involved in-group thinking projects. It also talked about good versus evil and how authority figures can make us do the wrong thing even though we know it is wrong. It talked about how they set up a study where they picked 24 college students to participate in a prison experiment, where somewhere guards and some were prisoners. All of the students chosen were mentally and physically stable and were considered good people. This mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University and took place over several days.  It shows how good and smart young men were turned into horrible abusive people, who mentally and physically abused their classmates. They did things they never thought they would do, like sexually harass them. Some prisoners were released due to emotional stress and this all occurred less than a week into the experiment. It was made clear to the head of the experiment that human beings were suffering, not prisoners. This is one of the best quotes in all the articles I have read because even though they are prisoners they still should be treated like humans! All of the people involved in the experiment had been transformed into their roles and were actually using their roles to their fullest ability, which is sickening. “The situational forces in that "bad barrel" had overwhelmed the goodness of most of those infected by their viral power.”  He states that the situation won and humanity had lost meaning that those men did not bring morals they had learned from a young age into play, but instead let the situation get the best of them. “The critical message then is to be sensitive about our vulnerability to subtle but powerful situational forces and, by such awareness, be more able to overcome those forces.”

I learned a lot from this article and I think it will really help me with my paper. I learned more than what I had hoped to learn about. I learned about how authority positions and power can cause the loss of a person’s humanity, just like these young men lost theirs.

Zimbardo, Philip G. "Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: A Lesson in the Power of Situation." Chronicle of Higher Education 53.30 (2007): b6-b7. Academic Search Complete.ebsco. web. 7 Apr. 2011.