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Stanford Prison Experiment
Phillip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment: Ethical or not?

Chase Clark

University of Massachusetts, Lowell

Abstract

The research conducted in this paper consists of solely the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was originally conducted by the social psychologist, Phillip G. Zimbardo. This experiment replicated a real prison that took students to participate in it. Students role-played the prisoners themselves, and prison guards. It was conducted in the basement of the psychology department on the Stanford University campus in Stanford, California. The experiment turned into an ethical conflict with Zimbardo himself, and society. Cruel behavior coming from the guards dehumanized the prisoners themselves, generally creating a terrible scene to watch. This experiment was mainly conducted to illustrate the cognitive dissonance theory. Prisoners started to become insane and uncomfortable with the mistreatments, causing the unethical experiment to shut down earlier than planned. Why did the prisoners end up acting the way they did? How did the guards feel with that kind of authority over humans? Why didn’t it get shut down even earlier? There is something about this experiment that created such an ethical misunderstanding that forced it to be shut down early. This research will answer all of these questions and more as to what proposed the experiment in the first place and how it happened as it did. Keywords: cognitive dissonance theory

Phillip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment: Ethical or not?

When experiments are conducted, risking the sanity of human beings on whether or not one could be left permanently damaged mentally or physically, the world may look at that in a negative perspective. This is exactly what Phillip G. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment brewed up during 1971. What Zimbardo wanted to study is the psychological effects that take place when becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. Learning the developed norms and effects on


References: "Demonstrating the Power of Social Situations via a Simulated Prison Experiment." Demonstrating the Power of Social Situations via a Simulated Prison Experiment. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.apa.org/research/action/prison.aspx>. "Psychology Headlines." Philip G. Zimbardo. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://zimbardo.socialpsychology.org/publications>. "Stanford Prison Experiment." The : A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.prisonexp.org/>. The Stanford Prison Experiment. Perf. Phillip G. Zimbardo. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc>. The Stanford Prison Experiment. Perf. Phillip G. Zimbardo. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZwfNs1pqG0>. "Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment." Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2013. <http://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html>.
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