09 Nov, 2008
5 Psychological experiments that expose the dark side of humanity (Part 4)
Posted by: Marcelo Galvani In: General
I found this article in English and I am translating.
Sources: Cracked.com and Mindpowernews.com
[Part 4]
Psychologists know that they have to be careful when exploring the human mind, because you never know what you'll find. A series of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the issues.
Oh, we're not talking about the occasional psychopath. No, we're talking about you. The experiments speak for themselves:
# 2. The Stanford Prison Experiment's (1971)
The Preparation: The psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to find out how captivity affects authorities and held in prison. Sounds innocent enough. Seriously, what could go wrong?
ZIMBARDO turned the basement of the Department of Psychology from Stanford in a "prison". Volunteers responding to an advertisement appeared in newspapers, and then pass a test proving good health and high quality and mental stability, which are very important factors to decide who goes to prison. These volunteers were all male students, who were then divided arbitrarily into 12 guards and 12 prisoners. The very ZIMBARDO decided that I wanted to play well, and he was appointed the Superintendent of the prison. The simulation was planned to run for two weeks.
Nothing could go wrong.
The result: It took about a day for each participant is suddenly transformed into a madman. In the second day, the prisoners encenaram a riot in prison, blocking their cells with their beds and insulting the guards. The guards saw this as a good excuse to start the use of fire extinguishers in insurgents because, hey, why the hell not?
From that point on, the Stanford Prison that had already gone to hell, just continued to ricochet around the hell day after day. Some guards began forcing prisoners to sleep on the bare concrete, restricting the bathroom as a privilege (which was often denied). The prisoners were forced to do humiliating exercises and had to clean the toilets with their own hands.
Incredibly, when the "prisoners" were told they had a chance of parole, and then was denied a parole, was not to simply ask them to leave the damned of the experiment. Remember that had absolutely no legal reason to be arrested, they were only a game. This fact continued to escape them, because sat naked in their own filth, with bags on their heads.
Over 50 outsiders had stopped to observe the prison, but the morality of the trial was never questioned until ZIMBARDO of his girlfriend, Christina Maslach, strongly oppose it. After just six days, ZIMBARDO suspended the experiment (several of the "guards" expressed disappointment). If you were about to applaud Maslach as the only sane person involved in this crazy, you should know that she married ZIMBARDO, the guy who orchestrated the whole thing.
What this says about you: Have you ever been harassed by a policeman who acted as a big jerk, pushing him for no reason? The science says that if the roles were reversed, you probably do the same.
As the experiment, it is usually the fear of repercussion that keeps us from torturing human beings. Give us absolute power over somebody and a blank check from our superiors, and something should happen. Hey, it can happen to a bunch of college students hippies of Vietnam era, it is true that could happen to you.
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