Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo, was performed to see the process that takes place where guards and prisoners "learn" to become authoritarian guards and compliant prisoners. (Zimbardo, 732). The prisoners and guards had many burdens of disobedience. In the beginning of the experiment, the "prisoners" were stripped of everything and emotionally torn down for being "disobedient". They were dehumanized in every way. They couldn't speak to another unless they called each other by their prison identification number. They were told the rules of the prison and explained they would be punished if any of the rules were broken. They had to ask permission to do things that they would do on a daily basis such as going to the bathroom and smoking a cigarette. Throughout the experiment, the more aggressive and authoritative the guards became, the more disobedient that the prisoners became even to the point of rioting at during the beginning of the experiment. Everything else was taken away from them. They didn't have anything to think about except for following the rules. The conversations the prisoners had consisted of talking about ways to escape the prison and overthrowing the guards. They hardly ever spoke of their personal lives and lives outside of the prison. The guards also had burdens of disobedience. Even though this was to be an exercise, many of the guards ended up being extremely aggressive and domineering over the prisoners. Some of the guards had said they felt emotionally torn because they didn't feel this is what kind of person they really were. (Zimbardo, 739) But even though they felt this way, they never intervened when the worst guards were exercising their power over a prisoner and never complained about their jobs. These emotional burdens did not prevent the prisoners or guards from being disobedient even if such actions were to their own benefit. An example of this is when all the prisoners decided to