Human Behavior Experiments

Today in class we watched a documentary of how people behave when placed in experiments that make them act wrongly without any limitation of any morals. An experiment i found very interesting was the Stanford experiment because the idea of the experiment was based off an actual incident that occurred in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. In this experiment Philip Zimbardo uses Stanford university basement for the experiment. He got volunteers from the school and they were paid for being part of it, but they didn't know what the experiment was going to be about. You either were a cop or a prisoner. The police officers got symbols of power like handcuffs and uniforms to show they are superior than the prisoners. The prisoners where identified by numbers not their names. The guards who make them sing and do push-ups, at one point the guards was being challenged by the prisoners and saw them as dangerous. The guards started taunting them, making them do brutal things and some of the prisoners would break down because they couldn't take it anymore. After the 5th day of the experiment the wife's creator, Cristina, came in to see how it was going and she was terrified. She couldn't watch anything the guards were doing to the prisoners, so she stepped out and told Philip she couldn't be with him if he continues it,so it ends the experiment because he realizes what hes doing. This experiment shows how people get seduced into things things they never thought they would do, because they think they are doing the right things, torching normal people.