Summary How Group-Think Makes Killers
HOW GROUP-THINK MAKES KILLERS?
SUMMARY
The article starts by describing the setting in which an experiment, which was designed by psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo of the University of Stanford was conducted. The experiment involved college students who are to be divided into two groups -- one, the prison guards, and two, the inmates. However, six days after the experiment started, the experiment had to be stopped due to the abusive and sadistic behavior of the prison guards towards the inmates.
Zimbardo explained the sudden change in behavior of the young men by saying that in a large group, one would disregard any laws as he becomes nameless with respect to the crowd. Today, it is often cited to support the idea of the "evil collection." Although groups do sway their members into doing things which they would not be doing in their normal daily life, those actions are as equally likely to be positive as it is to be negative.
The same experiment, aired by BBC, was conducted by British psychologists Stephen D. Reicher and S. Alexander Haslam and was met by a different scenario, that is, the guards in in their experiment acted insecurely which led them to conclude that the behavior of a group depends on the members' expectations of the social role they should play.
Although psychologists may disagree over how individuals might behave in a crowd, they do agree on one fundamental point: lost in a collective, the individual outgrows himself, for good or bad.
Giving Up "I" for "We
The BBC experiment refutes the widespread negative view that in a crowd, an individual's identity dissolves and the person is carried away to commit immoral, irrational deeds.
Psychologists have demistified collective behavior, showing that normal, scientifically explainable psychological actions are taking place and that it is not pathological. However, when an individual joins a social group, he or she is somehow stripped off of his or her individual identity.
Gustave Le Bon, a
SUMMARY
The article starts by describing the setting in which an experiment, which was designed by psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo of the University of Stanford was conducted. The experiment involved college students who are to be divided into two groups -- one, the prison guards, and two, the inmates. However, six days after the experiment started, the experiment had to be stopped due to the abusive and sadistic behavior of the prison guards towards the inmates.
Zimbardo explained the sudden change in behavior of the young men by saying that in a large group, one would disregard any laws as he becomes nameless with respect to the crowd. Today, it is often cited to support the idea of the "evil collection." Although groups do sway their members into doing things which they would not be doing in their normal daily life, those actions are as equally likely to be positive as it is to be negative.
The same experiment, aired by BBC, was conducted by British psychologists Stephen D. Reicher and S. Alexander Haslam and was met by a different scenario, that is, the guards in in their experiment acted insecurely which led them to conclude that the behavior of a group depends on the members' expectations of the social role they should play.
Although psychologists may disagree over how individuals might behave in a crowd, they do agree on one fundamental point: lost in a collective, the individual outgrows himself, for good or bad.
Giving Up "I" for "We
The BBC experiment refutes the widespread negative view that in a crowd, an individual's identity dissolves and the person is carried away to commit immoral, irrational deeds.
Psychologists have demistified collective behavior, showing that normal, scientifically explainable psychological actions are taking place and that it is not pathological. However, when an individual joins a social group, he or she is somehow stripped off of his or her individual identity.
Gustave Le Bon, a