Comments on: Our Dark Hearts: The Stanford Prison Experiment

By: Jamil khan

Jamil khan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:20:37 +0000

I thought it was a very interesting study despite the criticism and the study being unethical it provided us with a greater understanding of human nature and how it can be influenced by certain environment.

By: seeker69

seeker69 — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:13:00 +0000

Course if they were paid ,well thats ok .What does that have to do with any thing .Six Blind Men and The Elephant anybody ?.Sign me in as Ann Elk.In a moral fundamentalist universe that some people seem to inhabit there are good people and bad people I think God Makes them .This experiment ,if that's the correct word shows that if you take a bunch of middle class young men and randomly asign them as either screws or cons and put them in a make belive situation things can get out of hand.I think it is significant.Humans are very dangerous even the "nice ones " The Obediance experiment must have only found the evil ones in the population . sorry tounge in cheek.

By: danica5e

danica5e — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:17:00 +0000

From having a quick read through the comments I don't think that one person has mentioned that the men involved actually responded to an advertisment placed in a newspaper. They knew what they were getting into and yes I feel sorry for the men who became 'prisoners' but like I said, they knew what was going to happen and they were paid for it.

By: aguagirl567

aguagirl567 — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:40:00 +0000

Hi Sam-

The participants were aware of the experiments. They were college aged boys without any sort of mental or psychological illnesses or disablilites, randomly assigned to either the position of the guard or the prisoner. What is more, the boys all considered themselves pacifists. The professors were the "deans" and "wardens" and they even had a man recently released from 17 years in jail act as an officer. Despite knowing that it wasn't real, all the men, including the professors and ex-con, became so involved in their roles it took an outside person commenting on the cruelty for them to see how unjust they were behaving. This experiment shows how personality, morals, and principles can be pushed aside so quickly in a situation such as this. Indeed, police men and prison guards often fall mercy to the "position" and the perceived qualifications that come along with it.

By: sharicepieces of thought

sharicepieces of thought — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:58:00 +0000

I just wanted to thank the author for placing the video at the end of the article.
Way to go.

By: Sam

Sam — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:57:00 +0000

Hi, Jeremy answer if you will.

Now i was wondering (quite stupidly),
If the participants knew, pre and during the experiment that it was just an experiment, im sorry, because i know this would have been answered previously in the text but i missed it.

Also i was wondering at what rate the persionalities of the subjects changed, and the difference between that of a person who is say a prisinor guard for a living, to that of some one who is put into this with knowledge that it is not an indefinant role in there life.

Sorry for the incoherency above by the way.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 03:58:00 +0000

Most institutionalised roles including military, prisons, police etc take people off the street and attract the competitive, power and control and soicopaths of the world. I undertook 20 years in the military as a female and saw the changes in people once they were in uniform. The most quiet, subservient men and women became the arrogant, chauvinistic ogres to their junior ranks. There was that perception that they needed to be a 'certain type of personality' to be respected and eventually promoted.

By: Rogue

Rogue — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:59:00 +0000

This was a pretty amazing event. I really never knew it happened until i learned about it in Psychology calss in college. Its amazing how the guards turned into what they were acting as when it became who they were. It really became a dictating role. Kinda like a little holocaust, which in my thoughts should never be reacted. Ok well i gotta go fishish writing a paper about The stanford prison experiment.

Rogue

By: Lou

Lou — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:18:00 +0000

Hi Jeremy
Unfortunately one person's opinion of 'something significant' can be seen as something ordinary and self-evident by others. Also, in like manner, I don't think you have the same understanding of the term 'general principle' as I do (eg as the Periodic Table and its explanation of the behaviour of atoms is to Chemistry).

One cannot discover general principles from a 'one-off' experiment - one must think and mentally search and explore. I find the use of disgraceful terms like 'evil' and 'the Lucifer effect' in connection with the behaviour of some of those involved in the experiment revealing as to the true low level of understanding of human nature by those who use those pathetic terms. That experiment (likewise the situation in Abu Ghraib) was neither surprising, revealing nor unique. Similar behaviour has been occurring for thousands of years for the very simple reason that human nature hasn't changed in tens of thousands of years.

For my part - I am just passing thru looking for a site with intelligent discussion - which I will continue looking for - elsewhere. (This is not being nasty - just truthful - sadly).

Lou

By: Rocky Abramson

Rocky Abramson — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Dr. Grumpus, certainly role perception partially explains the behavior of the guards at Abu Ghraib.
However, my experience leads me to beleve that the military police there- not being in the line of fire- wanted to show that they could "kick ass". For this reason they documented many abusive actions- to show the folks at home how they are "contributing" to the war effort.