Marcelo Galvani

I found this article in English and I'm 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 find. A series of psychological experiments over the years have yielded terrifying conclusions about the topics.

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 (1971)

Preparation: Psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to find out how captivity affects authorities and inmates in prison. Sounds innocent enough. Seriously, what could go wrong?

Zimbardo transformed the basement of the Psychology Department at Stanford in a "prison". Volunteers appeared answering a newspaper ad and then passed a test proving good health and high-quality mental stability, which are very important factors to decide who goes to prison. These volunteers were all male college students, who were then divided arbitrarily into 12 guards and 12 prisoners. Zimbardo himself decided that he wanted to play too, and he was named 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 to turn suddenly into a madman. On the second day, prisoners staged a riot at the prison, blocking their cells with their beds and taunting the guards. The guards saw this as a good excuse to start the use of fire extinguishers on the 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 inmates to sleep naked on the concrete, restricting the bathroom as a privilege (which was often denied). The prisoners were forced to do humiliating exercises and had to clean toilets with their bare hands.

Incredibly, when the "prisoners" were told they had a chance of parole, then, was denied parole, did not occur to them simply ask to leave the damned experiment. Remember they had absolutely no legal reason to arrest, they were just a game. This fact continued to escape them, for they 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's girlfriend, Christina Maslach, strongly oppose. After only six days, Zimbardo stopped the experiment (several of the "guards" expressed disappointment). If you were about to applaud Maslach as the only sane person involved in this craziness, you should know that she married Zimbardo, the guy who orchestrated the whole thing.

What it reveals about you: Have you been harassed by a cop who acted like a big jerk, pushing him for no reason? Science says that if the roles were reversed, you probably act the same way.

As the experiment is usually 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 must happen. Hey, it can happen to a bunch of college students hippies of the Vietnam era, it is certain that could happen to you.

Be Sociable, Share!

•