The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Chinese philosopher Xun Zi once said, "Human nature is evil, and goodness is caused by intentional activity."  Is human nature really evil?  In the movie The Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to see the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner and prison guard from August 14 - 20, 1971.  He interviewed a group of 70 students and chose 24 of them, giving them the role of either a prisoner or a prison guard in an experiment conducted in the Jordan Hall, in the Stanford Psychology building .  The participants came from middle class families and were mentally stable.  It intended to last for 14 days but it ended only after six days of the trial. Unexpectedly, the prison guards took their role seriously and began treating the prisoners as if they were real convicts.  The guards humiliated and used physical force to make the prisoners do certain tasks that the prisoners refused.  A few prisoners left the experiment early due to the mental torture that were inflicted on them.

The experiment shows the label of a person produces behaviors and it causes the person to act certain ways base on the label.  The worst part about the situation is that the person does not feel bad about their action because they see that it is their duties to do so.  It is the duty of the prison guard to be firm and show no leniency toward the prisoners.  And that the more authority a person has, the more risks he takes to mentally or physically harm the other person.  I wonder if each of us were given a label as a prisoner or a guard, would we do the same? Would we still be submissive like the prisoners and be harsh like the guards?  And despite how fictional the label is, would we forget our identity?

The experiment did no physical harm to the participants but the psychological effect is apparent through the actions of the participants after the label was put on them.  The study shows how our human nature is prone to being evil just by putting a label on us.  So is human nature naturally evil? Are we prone to inflict harm on other people?  At the end of the movie, a new student took the role of a prisoner after a few prisoners exited the experiment and he saw the brutality and the harsh treatment that the prison guards were inflicted on the prisoners.  The new prisoners refused to do what the guards ask them to do and they pointed out the harshness of the guard and how the experiment has gone too far.

As humans, we are prone to evil but like the new prisoner demonstrated, we can sense it when we see one.  We can smell and see evil from afar and we can choose to do something about it.  I used to complain to my mom that our American government spends so much time interfering other countries' business; for instance, America is involved in the Syrian refugee rescue because of a civii war in Syria and many of the refugees need a place to stay for their own safety and for a better future and the United States offers to take in a number of refugees. I used to be against the action but now I am all for it.  As humans, we cannot see evil and let it gets on with its cycle, we have to do something and make the world a better place to live.  The Stanford experiment shows humans are capable of evil but at the same time, we are capable of seeing goodness as well.