I read the Stanford Prison Experiment as a cautionary tale more than anything else. Average “boys” when placed into either situations of previously unknown power or lack thereof for no reason other than random assortment, completely fall into their role of either a power-hungry prison guard or a prisoner with few human rights that trusts no one. They perform these roles so well the experiment had to be stopped early. If this is what can happen in a psychology department basement within 5 days using college students with no criminal past or previous exposure to the US correctional system, imagine what a real US prison would be like. Like many actual prison guards, these “guards” had no formal training and simply relied on their own instincts and turned the prisoners against each other to deflect the anger the prisoners felt from their inhumane conditions.
I am particularly fascinated by the guards in this experiment and how readily they embraced their role. Goethals and Allison state how “depending on context, mystery can arouse either thoughts of frightening danger and villains, or positive, hopeful expectations and images of wonder, awe and heroic leadership” (3). By giving the guards mirrored sunglasses that prevented the prisoners from seeing their eyes and providing them all with the same uniform – both of which added an air of mystery to the guards’ identity – the experimenters were able to make villains out of randomly assorted college students using the fear-inducing context of a prison. The researchers were so successful in constructing these villains that the guards began to view themselves as actual prison guards, not just students participating in a study. This makes me wonder how much the context of the world around us/what is placed on us by people around us influences our identities, how we present ourselves to the world, and how we see ourselves. It makes me think that our environment has the ability to completely change our behavior and attitudes, which is part of why I believe that by continuing to treat prisoners this way instead of focusing on actual rehabilitation the US justice system is merely perpetuating a vicious cycle of crime and incarceration.
I completely agree with you, it’s genuinely scary to see how quickly and readily these regular college students assumed the role of guard when given unlimited power. I think that this experiment shows us just how degrading the US prison system can be, and the psychological effects of being reduced to a prisoner or a number. It also makes me wonder how profoundly this can affect people when they are actually released from prison?
This section of the Goethals and Allison reading made me think of the von Rueden reading about how we value leaders who look the part that we expect them too. In terms of the Stanford experiment, they looked the part of the typical prison guard and as a result, it altered their behavior. I thought this correlation between their looks vs. the prisoners and their behavior was interesting, especially in terms of leadership and how leaders can act.
I didn’t regard the Stanford Prison Experiment as a cautionary tale until I read your response, and now it makes complete sense to me. When these boys were given a free-for-all of power, they took advantage of this, and the experiment literally had to end early because of the dangers that were discovered. And just like you said, if this is what took place for a group of college boys over the course of 5 days, I can only imagine what truly goes on in our prison system with no one watching.