The Roles that Society Places on Us: The Zimbardo Prison Experiment

Have you ever wondered why areas are considered "bad" and others right next to it are supposed to be good? Stanford Psychologist Zimbardo asked a similar question about why prisons are considered violent. He believed either the prisoners were already violent and made the situation even more violent, or that the social situation made the people violent. To test this he hired 24 college students who have never committed a crime or shown any violent tendencies. 12 were randomly selected to be guards and the other 12 were simulated prisoners who went through the full experience of being arrested.

This study shows how fast roles develop people's personalities. Within a few hours the guards started asserting their authority over the prisoners and subjected to bizarre and mostly cruel punishments. Even the prisoners developed a personality based on the roles of a prisoner. They were increasingly paranoid and ratting out others in order to avoid more punishments. Within weeks the basement that they were using as a jail cell became a true jail cell, and it easily mirrored some of the worst of American prisons. The prisoners tried rebelling on the second day, but the efforts proved futile and prevented any other forms of deviance from their orders.

On the third day a prisoner had such a massive anxiety attack that Zimbardo and other researchers had to release him. The experiment continued for six days before they had to shut it down. The experiment was not considered inhumane, but it is a very divisive opinion to many psychologists and is argued often,

The main thing to get out of this experiment is that social situations heavily impact personalities and roles that people develop. High stress can lead to paranoia and fearful behavior, and cruelty is something that is partially developed due to the roles that people are forced into. This prison experiment can be applied to Nazi Germany in World War II and why so many citizens who became soldiers were able to do the things they did when they were guards in concentration camps.