Dumb question - I read about this on Wikipedia and it said that the guards abused the prisoners and made them go without food & bathroom breaks, made them take off their clothes, and do all sorts of humiliating things.
Why didn't the test subjects quit the experiment? $15.00 a day isn't worth being treated like a real prisoner.
Or is it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
I believe that this abuse didn't start over night, and by the time it was happening in full swing, the "prisoners" were already psychologically at the mercy of the guards.
I remember reading about this years ago, and when one prisoner who the guards were really picking on was removed, he was allegedly in tears over not having been a good prisoner.
It was an interesting experiment for sure.
We studied this experiment at length in my ap psych class last year. It's really overwhelming to understand how often we unkowingly and effortlessly conform to other people in society. Since there was no authoritative figure (besides the guards) and since even the professors in charge of the experiment were seemingly condoning the behavior, the prisoners felt THEY were being unreasonable to object to punishment. However, this did not mean they were complacent, just at mercy to the "guards" will and whims. Research it more online, it is truly one of the more fascinating experiments ever done in the field of psychology.
shareWow...I guess I never saw it like that...
Thanks!
"We aren't arrogant - we just believe that we're the best band in the world." - Noel Gallagher
For those who care to read throughout this web site:
http://www.prisonexp.org/
it will become quitte clear why they didn't quit.
I just hope to see my favs Ribisi, Culkin and Dano as Guards. I love the bad guys. And the prisinors are just depresing and scared. I don't care if they are played by those other guys, I've never heard of :p
I see they are famous, but through their imdb profiles they lack charizma. Unlike those three.
wow, i cannot believe you've never heard of ben mckenzie. or ryan phillippe. OR channing tatum. the three reasons i'm actually going to watch this movie (interesting subject aside). they're all three of them pretty damn amazing actors with some serious acting chops (well, i guess i could be biased about ryan, but he is so *pretty*). and after his stint on the oc? there is absolutely no doubt that ben mckenzie is one of the most striking, charismatic actors of his time. he doesn't even need dialogue to make you fall in love with him.
shareSeriously Channing Tatum has been nominated for different film awards already, Mckenzie was the lead character of The O.C. (even if you wanted to you couldn't avoid seeing commercials and billboards for that show everywhere) and Phillipe has been around for years in different films including the cult classic "Cruel Intentions". How haven't you heard of those guys? Oh and I'm psyched to see all of these guys in this movie. Hope they all sign on.
share[deleted]
And I cannot believe you claim ben mackenzie is a great actor. [] Oh yeah, that dude can brood with the best of 'em. For christssakes at least try to read The Lucifer Effect before going to see this.
OMG how can you seriously NOT know who Ryan Phillippe, Ben McKenzie, Channing Tatum and Charlie Hunnam are?
If you are not aware of their acting abilities then you should check out some of their best roles:
Phillippe - Cruel Intentions (his new film looks great too = Stop Loss)
McKenzie - granted I have only seen him in The O.C but he was great in that and I do believe that given th chance to expand his acting abilities he will be great
Tatum - firstly he is the star of one of my fave chick flicks ever = Step Up, however I do believe he really proves his acting ability in A Guide To Recognising Your Saints which is a really fantastic film
Hunnam - I first came across him in Queer As Folk in which he was brilliant, but he really excelled to me in one of the best films ever made = Green Street (AKA Hooligans in US). I do believe that he is one of the best British actors at the moment although he is largely under-rated as yet.
Also, all four of these guys are extremely FIT! and if they are confirmed then along with Ribsi, Culkin and Dano this film is gonna have one of the Hottest casts a film has ever had, as well as one of th most talented!!
romanceonanapkin
We studied this experiment at length in my ap psych class last year. It's really overwhelming to understand how often we unkowingly and effortlessly conform to other people in society. Since there was no authoritative figure (besides the guards) and since even the professors in charge of the experiment were seemingly condoning the behavior, the prisoners felt THEY were being unreasonable to object to punishment. However, this did not mean they were complacent, just at mercy to the "guards" will and whims. Research it more online, it is truly one of the more fascinating experiments ever done in the field of psychology.
mimosveta
For those who care to read throughout this web site:
http://www.prisonexp.org/
it will become quitte clear why they didn't quit.
Sissyq89
This is a very intresting experiment on aggresstion, social roles, confromity, and obeidence. It should be intresting to see how acurate the movie is
therealgirl_25
We did a very watered down "mock" experiment in my high school psych class. No one had heard of this experiment before, our teacher just came in an assigned us to teams. The Gold team were the leaders and set all the rules, the blue team were the subordinates and had to ask permission/follow all our rules. Our teacher purposely split up groups of friends, couples etc, and after a day or two you wouldn't believe how much people had changed to fit their roles. When it was all said and done I think we were all both embarrassed and scared that it was that easy to change us. I find this stuff fascinating, look at Jim Jones he was able to convince all of those people to follow him, work for him and be his enforcers simply by giving them those roles. Very interesting stuff.
gavinsat »
The game slowly but surely became real, the abuse was a slow process and they were eased into it.
One person did quit. And one person asked for parole from Zimbado. Beond that they just forgot it was a game.
15 dollars a day when this was happening was close to almost 80 bucks a day today. they could pay their rent, buy their pot, and eat off that if they did the experiment for 2 weeks, thats like $1120.
share[deleted]
They were all more than willing to leave if they wanted to. Like another person said, one man left crying because he thought he was a "bad" prisoner. The guards made the other prisoners chant, "418 did a bad thing" loud enough for him to hear.
Another prisoner tried many differnt tactics to get out of there and they eventually made him leave when he started to act crazy. He helped stage a revolt the second day but that just made the guards take more extreme means to control them.
My theory is the reason that they didn't leave was because they felt like they had to stay. Not like they were being forced to, but that they had to stay. After a long time, I'm sure they felt a loyalty to each other and that is probably why prisoner 418 was crying. I'm sure they also felt like they had to be "men" and stick it out, even though it was clear that they were breaking down, metally.
This is a very intresting experiment on aggresstion, social roles, confromity, and obeidence. It should be intresting to see how acurate the movie is!
One of the prisoners actually wanted to leave, but they didn't let him leave, i believe they offered him the job as the "Prison snitch". He was told to tell the rest of the prisoners that there is no real way of getting out of there, so i guess they felt that they really couldn't leave knowing that.
Also the fact that the prisoners bonded as a unit of solidarity, of which the one who opposes the conformed group or acts as an individual becomes guilty of being a bad prisoner. Eventually one prisoner was offered to leave, but he refused to leave since he felt he was a bad prisoner.
Zimbardo did stop it early, after 6 days because of the extreme effects on the participants, they all conformed to their roles more quickly and strongly than anticipated, and Zimbardo himself felt kind of caught up in his role aswell. Both the prisoners and guards were strongly affected, thus proving the point of the experiment, that when you are treated in a certain way and/or given power in certain conditions can lead to changes in personality, as the people chosen were normal people chosen because of their mental stability and maturity.
'The Lucifer Effect' is Zimbardo's own account of the experiment... I've not read it yet though (just study psychology)
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Zimbardo got too involved. He lost his objectivity when he made himself the warden. Due to his being immersed in his role, he forgot about the welfare of his participants, as well as the very important fact that participation is strictly voluntary. He was thinking of them as real prisoners, not as participants. So when someone wanted to leave and quit the experiment, he was denied.
This experiment HUGELY violated ethics. I personally believe it was worse than Milgram's.
"Ethics" as we see them today didn't really exist when this study was carried out though.
It was this and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study that led to the development of ethics boards and whatnot.