Saturday, November 15, 2008
11:13 PM
Psychology Experiment Reflecting Human NaturePlease visit this website
http://www.prisonexp.org/ and read through the following slides.
It's a pretty famous psychology experiment in the 70s and has now become a classic case in research ethics.
Prisoner-warden psychology is explored here and you see how 3 days into the experiment and the subjects are totally into their role. These guys signed up voluntarily and those who became 'wardens' had no prior experience in prison training, yet they were capable of inflicting monstrous torture and humiliation on their fellow schoolmates. The more pressing discussion question it raises is: what makes a human being able to perform such atrocities to a another human being. Think guatanamo, holocaust and nanking. Humans are perhaps, evil by nature, an inheritance from our predessor, cain.
Please feel free to share your views on this research article. There are some discussion questions on every slide that do make us think more deeply about human nature.
Lynn
Credits: Zhuo Min
