Mystery & Meaning/The Stanford Prison Experiment

All I have to say after these readings are wow.

For Mystery & Meaning, I was consumed by all of the interesting theories, effects and explanations of how people understand the world around them. I remember Bezio saying in one of our previous classes that humans have a need for finding, and in some cases, creating patterns and now it makes more sense. As I read this, I began to make of ton of connections to the way our world functions today. For example, the power of a title changing how you’re perceived/treated by others, employers enacting the primacy effect in an interview after already having read a resume, and the rumor of UR not being open this Fall out of fear. The section that stood out to me the most was “The Need for Closure”. I have always been the type of person that needs to finish something once it has started. For example, I cannot, cannot stop writing an essay once I start it. I have always been this way in most aspects of my life, so reading about the Zeigarnik effect was eerie because it offered an explanation of what unfinished tasks feel like to me. Another section that caught my attention discussed how negative feelings/associations tend to be stronger than positive ones. I have a phobia of Ferris wheels (don’t laugh) and I could never really explain why. It’s not the height aspect, because I enjoy riding roller coasters. After reading about how phobias involve “any potential negative experience under uncertainty”, I realized that it’s because Ferris wheels are free-hanging and don’t have seatbelts. All of the item’s weight is suspended by one point attached to a rotating wheel. Now I finally have an explanation for my avoidance of Ferris wheels. 🙂

On another note, I cannot believe I have never heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment before! Although overall it was a completely astounding experiment in various ways, I was most shocked when the research psychologist himself began to firmly view this as his reality (after rumors of a mass escape). The fact that the main person who is supposed to remain grounded and “above” the experiment became such an active participant in his own way speaks to the power of the situation. I began talking with my mom about the experiment (she had never heard of it before either) and after listening for a few minutes she said, “Well, it makes sense. Do you remember what happened every year we did the haunted house?” At the end of October our church youth group would put on a haunted house that we worked on for months in advance. It was our largest fundraiser of the year and people from all over the city would come to walk-through. Everyone in the parish participated in some way and would contain mad scientists, clowns, dolls, zombies, traditional Hollywood Figures, and local urban legend characters (i.e. la llorona). My mom drew attention to how everyone was rocky in their parts at first, but with the right environment (darkness, strobe lights, sounds, fog, etc.), we would quickly become our character. By the third night, the experience became training and we would have to have constant check-ins with each other to make sure we were okay. The screams we made were so realistic that peers and visitors believed it. Each of us began to laugh more like the clown’s, make creepy face’s like the doll’s and say certain phrases the jump scarers would say. It wasn’t a fully immersive environment (24/7), but spending 6 hours every night acting in this role took haunting to an entirely different level.

3 thoughts on “Mystery & Meaning/The Stanford Prison Experiment

  1. Jesse Chiotelis

    Thank you for sharing your story about your church’s annual Haunted House… it is so interesting how even though “it wasn’t a fully immersive environment (24/7),” you and your peers still felt and were aware of behavior changes… I wonder if this effect also has anything to do with how society acts during holiday times like Halloween.. it sometimes appears like everyone is expecting/ feeling that spooky vibe (grocery stores and lawns are decorated, Halloween movies on TV, etc.) I wonder if this is similar to “filling the need” as mentioned in the Goethals & Allison reading… ALSO! I have learned about the Standford Prison Experiment multiple times but after reading Goethals and Allison’s reading I was alsotaken aback by how the “research psychologist himself began to firmly view this as his reality “. Your point: ” The fact that the main person who is supposed to remain grounded and “above” the experiment became such an active participant in his own way speaks to the power of the situation” is very accurate… and scary…. yikes.

  2. Robert Loonie

    I also thought of our class conversation on pattern development when reading the Mystery and Meaning Piece. I agree that as humans, we largely like to group independent actions with one another and have expectations for how they will play out based on our preconceived notions for how other events go. I thought it was really interesting how they thought the reason we remember incomplete tasks is because our brains want to group them with similar actions that are completed events, but since they are incomplete, we cannot group them together, which makes them stand out in our brains. I had never thought of this before, but after reading it, I am a lot more cognizant about why I remember partictular actions instead of other ones.

  3. Ellen Curtis

    I relate to what you’re saying about phobias. Ever since I was really young I have had a huge phobia about getting sick (like minor illness) and I have never been able to rid of that fear no matter how hard I have tried. I will go to irrational lengths to avoid getting sick and only focusing on preventing illness can really take away from some of the fun parts of life and I know that I am being completely irrational but I still do it. I had never thought about that in connection to human beings so risk adverse. It feels like my mind is probably telling me to go to whatever lengths it takes to prevent that risk.

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