Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Tommy_Carcetti

(43,080 posts)
Thu Jun 21, 2018, 11:24 AM Jun 2018

No, the Stanford Prison Experiment was not a fraud.

I remember hearing about the Stanford Prison Experiment for the first time while driving in my car and listening to a NPR report about it; I was absolutely riveted by the details. Several years later, a self-titled movie about the experiment came out starring Billy Crudup, and it too was very well done.

For those unaware about the experiment, in 1971 Stanford researcher Phillip Zimbardo devised a scenario where 15 volunteered men would split the roles between guards and prisoners at a hypothetical mock prison on the Stanford University campus. The guards were told they had free reign in order to keep order over the prisoners. The crux of the experiment was to determine how far people placed in authority over subservient individuals would go to maintain order. As it turns out, the situation at the "prison" deteriorated far more quickly than anticipated, as the guards sought out various extreme ways to humiliate and emotionally abuse the prisoners in their keep. The experiment was so unsettling that Zimbardo ultimately ended it six days into its planned two week study period.

Since then, the results from Stanford Prison Experiment have been cited in various real life examples of authoritarianism run amok, such as the Abu Gharib prisoner abuse scandal during the Iraq War. Taken on its face value, it seemed to raise more questions than answers, leading people to wonder what lengths of depravity people would go to if given free reign over other human beings.

However, in recent months there have been some questions raised as to the validity of the experiment. Some participants have claimed that far from being removed from the experiment, Zimbardo actually actively encouraged the guards to humiliate the prisoners. While this hasn't necessarily been confirmed, if true, it would suggest the outcome of the experiment was heavily manipulated by Zimbardo.

However, even if this was the case, it wouldn't necessarily negate the underlying horrors of the experiment; it merely changes the equation. Instead of a comment on people mysteriously devolving into amoral chaos on their own, it instead would now serve as a comment on the power of suggestion. If an authoritarian figure expressly condones sadistic behavior, how easily are those under the orders of that authoritarian to carry it out on their respective underlings. For every SS officer, there's a Hitler; for all the privates at the Abu Gharib prison, there's the military intelligence urging them to go all out for intel; for all the guards in the Stanford Prison Experiment, there's a Philip Zimbardo.

And for all the ICE agents and border guards, there's a Donald Trump.

The very still valid question of the Stanford Prison Experiment remains: If someone else tells you that you can threaten and humiliate human beings without any sort of personal consequence, would you still do it?

No, the Stanford Prison Experiment wasn't a fraud; it simply was a far different experiment than we all had originally believed.

8 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
No, the Stanford Prison Experiment was not a fraud. (Original Post) Tommy_Carcetti Jun 2018 OP
Oh it was real. Crutchez_CuiBono Jun 2018 #1
It was real, it did get out of hand though ck4829 Jun 2018 #2
K & R.... dhill926 Jun 2018 #3
Having a staffer urge the "jailer" on was part of the experimental design and not secret. hedda_foil Jun 2018 #4
I had to write a paper on that and the Milgram experiment in grad school Pacifist Patriot Jun 2018 #5
Add That Asch RobinA Jun 2018 #6
Geez, I didn't even think of those. You're absolutely right. Pacifist Patriot Jun 2018 #8
We do have authoritarian figures suggesting some lives matter less IronLionZion Jun 2018 #7

ck4829

(34,974 posts)
2. It was real, it did get out of hand though
Thu Jun 21, 2018, 11:32 AM
Jun 2018

It goes to show that mind control isn't a science fiction concept. You give a man a little bit of power and he might become a tyrant.

The Stanford prison experiment was ultimately called off, we see the things that happened in it in places that people can't always walk away from though... In Abu Ghraib, with cults, with people who wave alt-right and confederate flags, and with Trumpism.

RobinA

(9,874 posts)
6. Add That Asch
Thu Jun 21, 2018, 12:40 PM
Jun 2018

experiment and one could get the idea there simply is no hope. I don't even like to think about Milgram, I find it so creepy.

IronLionZion

(45,256 posts)
7. We do have authoritarian figures suggesting some lives matter less
Thu Jun 21, 2018, 12:46 PM
Jun 2018

and that as long as someone is guilty, or looks guilty, or looks like someone else who might be guilty, then they deserve sadistic abuse.

It's why they keep claiming crossing the border is just as bad a crime as murder or rape or drug smuggling or human trafficking or any other horrible crimes. In their privileged minds it justifies monstrous behavior.

Trump, NRA, and others in power have absolutely taught whites to consider brown people as the enemy who needs to be put down hard in "self defense". It happened with Bush after 9/11 also. American became white, brown people became not American. And TSA is encouraged to profile Indians with dark brown skin because they are too stupid to know that many middle eastern people have light skin and can pass for white. They encourage police to pull over black people driving because they are too stupid to know that many drug smugglers are very "normal looking" white people. Trump in his campaigns told us Mexicans are rapists, even though he himself is a rapist, and many rapists are white.

Even here on DU, we have racist liberal DUers searching out brutal rape stories from any little village in India to let us associate Indian men as rapists.

On a TV show recently, I saw some young white high school students investigating murder announce that if they didn't know for sure that the serial killer they were looking for was a middle aged white male with green eyes, they would have gotten the cops to arrest the young black fellow who was a little too persistent in asking out one of their black female friends because he was borderline stalking her. It was woke in it's own way.

Latest Discussions»General Discussion»No, the Stanford Prison E...