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Salute to those who like to break someone else's account, the prison experiment conducted in 1971 by F. Zimbardo and three of his colleagues from Stanford University became famous. He investigated the nature of violence and cruelty that arise as a person's reaction to the restriction of freedom in the conditions of a social role imposed on him.
To study social psychology in a prison setting, researchers invited undergraduate students to act out the roles of guards or convicts. More than 70 applicants who wanted to make $ 15 a day responded to the ad. All volunteers underwent testing and diagnostic interviews to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, disabilities, convictions or drug abuse. 24 students from the USA and Canada were selected. Half of them were randomly (coin tossed) identified as prisoners and the other half as guards in a two-week experiment.
To make the simulation of the prison environment reliable, psychologists turned to the services of counselors. Chief among them was an experienced "prisoner" who spent seventeen years behind bars. He told me what it was like to be in prison. He also introduced the researchers to other former prisoners and correctional workers.
"Prison" is preparing to receive prisoners. Photo by F. Zimbardo, 1971.
The "prison" itself was set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology department. To create the prison cells, the doors from the laboratory rooms were removed and replaced with specially made bars and cell numbers. The basement corridor served as a “courtyard” and the only place where “prisoners” were allowed to walk, eat or exercise, with the exception of going to the toilet (where the “prisoners” were taken blindfolded so as not to know the way out of the prison).
The "criminals" were "arrested" by the police on a quiet morning and imprisoned, where they were stripped, searched and dressed in uniforms. The guards received sticks, handcuffs, whistles and camera keys. Their concern was the observance of "law and order." There were certain rules for the prisoners: they had to be silent, eat and rest only at a certain time, contact each other by number, and “Mr. Officer ”to the guard, and so on. Violation of the rules was punished.
The "guards" work during the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.
The relationship between guards and prisoners quickly became classic: the guards began to view prisoners as inferior and dangerous. The prisoners saw the guards as hooligans and sadists. One of the guards remarked: “I was surprised at myself ... I called them offensive names, made them clean toilets with my bare hands. I regarded them as cattle and had to keep an eye on them just in case they wanted to do something. "
A few days later, the prisoners staged a real uprising. They barricaded themselves inside their cells with their bunks to the door. The guards poured water on them from fire hoses. After that, the beds were generally taken out of the cells. The guards established an additional rule: to "walk" prisoners only at night. More and more repressed prisoners became imbued with an obsession with global injustice. Some of them demanded release already on the fifth day of the experiment.
The "guards" talk to the "prisoners". At one point, the "prisoners" were dressed in sacks and moved in response to rumors of planning an escape.
The rapid development of sadism among the guards was noticed by them themselves. One of the guards, who prior to the experiment considered himself a kind and non-aggressive pacifist, wrote in his diary on the fifth day: “I deliberately chose him (the prisoner) to be insulted because I just didn't like him. .. This prisoner refused to eat his sausages. .. I decided to speed up his feeding, but he didn't want to eat. Then I smeared food on his face. I couldn't believe that I did it. I hated myself for what I had done, but I hated him even more. "
Philip Zimbardo, who did not expect such a rapid transformation in each group of volunteers, later wrote in the report: “What is most surprising about the experimental pseudo-prison is the ease with which sadistic behavior occurs in perfectly normal young people and emotional pathology among those who have been carefully selected on the basis of psychological stability ”.
The "guard" leads the "prisoner" to the toilet while blindfolded.
On the sixth day, the researchers had to end the experiment ahead of schedule - for the good of everyone who took part in it. According to many moralists, he was extremely unethical. Moreover, it has caused long-term physical and emotional stress in healthy and educated young people. Therefore, the prison experiment was never repeated again.
One of Shakespeare's heroes remarked: "The whole world is a theater, and we are all actors in it." The point is that the border between play and real life is very relative, they have a mutual transition, and this can be called a phenomenological incident. The curiosity of this phenomenon lies in the fact that life sometimes appears as a game, and play is a real life. Play makes it possible to reveal the true human essence when it directly turns into action. A person only needs to be helped to throw off his natural mask in order to reveal his original nature.
Shackles on the leg of the "prisoner" during the prison experiment. Photo by F. Zimbardo
Thus, the psychology of the 20th century, trying to answer the ancient question about good and evil in the human soul, replies that man is by nature an evil and cruel creature. In previous eras, such conclusions were made on the basis of the observations and speculative reasoning of philosophers. XX century makes it the subject of scientific social experimental research. To make its results more convincing, the experiment is conducted as a natural one. It is in him that the true nature of man should be frankly manifested.
To study social psychology in a prison setting, researchers invited undergraduate students to act out the roles of guards or convicts. More than 70 applicants who wanted to make $ 15 a day responded to the ad. All volunteers underwent testing and diagnostic interviews to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, disabilities, convictions or drug abuse. 24 students from the USA and Canada were selected. Half of them were randomly (coin tossed) identified as prisoners and the other half as guards in a two-week experiment.
To make the simulation of the prison environment reliable, psychologists turned to the services of counselors. Chief among them was an experienced "prisoner" who spent seventeen years behind bars. He told me what it was like to be in prison. He also introduced the researchers to other former prisoners and correctional workers.
"Prison" is preparing to receive prisoners. Photo by F. Zimbardo, 1971.
The "prison" itself was set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology department. To create the prison cells, the doors from the laboratory rooms were removed and replaced with specially made bars and cell numbers. The basement corridor served as a “courtyard” and the only place where “prisoners” were allowed to walk, eat or exercise, with the exception of going to the toilet (where the “prisoners” were taken blindfolded so as not to know the way out of the prison).
The "criminals" were "arrested" by the police on a quiet morning and imprisoned, where they were stripped, searched and dressed in uniforms. The guards received sticks, handcuffs, whistles and camera keys. Their concern was the observance of "law and order." There were certain rules for the prisoners: they had to be silent, eat and rest only at a certain time, contact each other by number, and “Mr. Officer ”to the guard, and so on. Violation of the rules was punished.
The "guards" work during the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment.
The relationship between guards and prisoners quickly became classic: the guards began to view prisoners as inferior and dangerous. The prisoners saw the guards as hooligans and sadists. One of the guards remarked: “I was surprised at myself ... I called them offensive names, made them clean toilets with my bare hands. I regarded them as cattle and had to keep an eye on them just in case they wanted to do something. "
A few days later, the prisoners staged a real uprising. They barricaded themselves inside their cells with their bunks to the door. The guards poured water on them from fire hoses. After that, the beds were generally taken out of the cells. The guards established an additional rule: to "walk" prisoners only at night. More and more repressed prisoners became imbued with an obsession with global injustice. Some of them demanded release already on the fifth day of the experiment.
The "guards" talk to the "prisoners". At one point, the "prisoners" were dressed in sacks and moved in response to rumors of planning an escape.
The rapid development of sadism among the guards was noticed by them themselves. One of the guards, who prior to the experiment considered himself a kind and non-aggressive pacifist, wrote in his diary on the fifth day: “I deliberately chose him (the prisoner) to be insulted because I just didn't like him. .. This prisoner refused to eat his sausages. .. I decided to speed up his feeding, but he didn't want to eat. Then I smeared food on his face. I couldn't believe that I did it. I hated myself for what I had done, but I hated him even more. "
Philip Zimbardo, who did not expect such a rapid transformation in each group of volunteers, later wrote in the report: “What is most surprising about the experimental pseudo-prison is the ease with which sadistic behavior occurs in perfectly normal young people and emotional pathology among those who have been carefully selected on the basis of psychological stability ”.
The "guard" leads the "prisoner" to the toilet while blindfolded.
On the sixth day, the researchers had to end the experiment ahead of schedule - for the good of everyone who took part in it. According to many moralists, he was extremely unethical. Moreover, it has caused long-term physical and emotional stress in healthy and educated young people. Therefore, the prison experiment was never repeated again.
One of Shakespeare's heroes remarked: "The whole world is a theater, and we are all actors in it." The point is that the border between play and real life is very relative, they have a mutual transition, and this can be called a phenomenological incident. The curiosity of this phenomenon lies in the fact that life sometimes appears as a game, and play is a real life. Play makes it possible to reveal the true human essence when it directly turns into action. A person only needs to be helped to throw off his natural mask in order to reveal his original nature.
Shackles on the leg of the "prisoner" during the prison experiment. Photo by F. Zimbardo
Thus, the psychology of the 20th century, trying to answer the ancient question about good and evil in the human soul, replies that man is by nature an evil and cruel creature. In previous eras, such conclusions were made on the basis of the observations and speculative reasoning of philosophers. XX century makes it the subject of scientific social experimental research. To make its results more convincing, the experiment is conducted as a natural one. It is in him that the true nature of man should be frankly manifested.
