

An Important but Rarely Discussed Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment - gruez
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/an-important-but-rarely-discussed-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment/

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Semiapies
This is an article talking about the fictionalized movie as if it were the
facts of the case.

~~~
ZoeZoeBee
How do we know its a fictionalized movie? Well in the movie all of the
prisoners are white.

------
pella
Zimbardo

* old project : "What makes us evil?"

* new project : "What makes us good?" or Hero ? [http://heroicimagination.org/](http://heroicimagination.org/) ( The Bystander Effect ; Mindset; Social Conformity; Adaptive Attributions; Situational Awareness; Prejudice and Group Perception )

[https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heroic-Imagination-
Project/32...](https://www.facebook.com/pages/Heroic-Imagination-
Project/322165964228)

\---

video: "HOW CAN AN ORDINARY PERSON LIKE ME BECOME A HERO The Heroic
Imagination Project - Philip Zimbardo" The Heroic Imagination Project, Philip
Zimbardo at Brain Bar Budapest 2015.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdAvV3SjNmY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdAvV3SjNmY)

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crimsonalucard
Power does not corrupt. Power only exposes what is already corrupt.

~~~
oldmanjay
Care to defend this? My only conceptions of this being a truism involve either
destiny or presuming people don't change, and neither are satisfying to accept
on their face.

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crimsonalucard
Did you vote me down? I never said anything about people not changing. My post
has nothing to do with destiny or the human capacity to change themselves.

In a sense what I'm saying is the more darker conclusion from this experiment
is that the "power" given out in the experiment didn't magnify or change
anything. The guards in the experiment were already corrupt, the experiment
only served to reveal their true nature.

Aspects of Darkness exist within us all. We've all felt the tug of greed,
anger, lust, gluttony and hate to certain extent and we've all taken measures
to hide this darkness. Power eliminates fear and reveals traits that we would
otherwise hide.

I'm not saying everyone is inherently evil, nor am I saying people can't
change. My belief is that people can change, some people are more evil than
others and that power reveals the true nature of a man.

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marincounty
"Maria Konnikova casts some doubt on that conclusion, arguing that the real
lesson is the power of institutions to shape behavior, and how people are
shaped by those preexisting expectations." "Yes, power corrupts. But power
does not corrupt everyone equally.

    
    
      As just a middle aged man who has observed many people, including my own behavior; I have honestly found that 99% of the people(men, and women equally) will go along with the crowd/institution as long as it's legal, and involves their livelihood.  
    

My antidodial observations are mainly from work, or educational enviorments. I
was in a professional school years ago. (I won't mention the profession out of
privacy.)

The first day of class all the students were bright eyed, and filled with
optimism. Well as time went by it was pretty obvious that the profession was
based on antidodial evidence. I was beyond disillusioned, but kinda knew what
I was getting into before paying all that tuition money. At the time, their
was still enough bad research which confused the the truth that the whole
profession was placebo based, or basically a scam. I noticed all the students,
and all, but one Instructor, made up reasons to believe in the
program/profession.

These students, and teachers financial/educational lives would have been
negatively effected if they questioned the profession too much. So what did my
class(around 75 people) do when it became obvious the profession really didn't
work the way we told, or believed?

The students did absolutely nothing!

They didn't question the bad science the instructors were spewing. Their was
only one student who dared to question the profession, and his eventual
livelyhood, as I recall. The smarter students rationalized, or went onto
denial about the profession that was based on basically antidodial evidence,
and naieve politicians. Not one student walked away from that program--well
one, but for other reasons(nervous breakdown--I recall?). A married couple was
in my class. Her husband(23?, perfect health) had a stroke on a Sunday
afternoon, after getting a treatment from this profession/school. She showed
up on class a few days later. Her belief/denial was so strong, I don't think
she even dared to link his death with the school's faulty theories?

My point is no one dared to question the school/profession. Their hasn't been
a week that goes by that I don't think about the findings of that Stanford
Prision Experiment, and my experience at that school.

I have spent over twenty years looking at people in institutions(educational,
occupational, personal relationships), and found that most people just go
along with the crowd, or institution. Yes, I have found a few Rebels, but true
Rebels--I can literally count on one hand. By true, I mean calling the
institution's behavior out, or leaving.

The amount of compliance to bad/questionable institutions; I find very
depressing. No, there's no utopia, but what people do to other
people/environment because they--can, just reminds me how
scared/desperate/selfish/malleable, and in some cases just evil we all are?

(This is nothing more than my ramblings on my life. It's purposely vague,
because I don't have facts--just antidotal evidence, and observations. I do
think about the intricacies of that study almost daily, and its findings hold
up on too many of my life situations/events. Sorry, about my writing. I just
don't have the energy to edit this. By the way, if you are a true Rebel; you
have my praise, and gratitude. I don't recommend fighting the institution if
you are poor--you might become homeless? I was no Rebel. I was in the 99%.)

If you have become Institutionalized by our society; I don't see anything
wrong with fighting the system in little ways? Just doing the right thing
every once in awhile helps? Nothing Big, and Dramatic, but truely doing the
right thing in a merky situation might help? Wow--I feel depressed.)

