Stanford and Milgram experiments

Creon

Creon

Community Member
MBTI
Lawful Evil
I don't know if this has been the subject of discussion here before, but I suppose you do know about the Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment. Do you have any thoughts in regards to the test subjects behaviours? How do you feel when someone tells you that your personality and nature has a darker side, that is prone to come out under the right circumstances? And by darker, I mean a sadistic, hateful and psychotic side.

Do you think you would be able to control yourself, if you had taken part in one on the above experiments, either as a prison guard, or as a prisoner, or as a teacher? Does the fact that a personality can so easily be twisted frighten you? Describe your thoughts and describe your reaction to stress in general.

If you have never heard of the experiments before, here are the links in wikipedia. They are extremely interesting to read.

Stanford Prison Experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Milgram Experiment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

There was also a German movie, Das Experiment, which was depicting some facts that took place during the Stanford experiment. I recommend it, but it's not for the faint-hearted.
 
In all of these scenarios, I would quit the minute it got out of hand. I do not have a mean bone in my body, and I do not have the capcity to do harm to anyone like that.

I got in a big argument with my old psych professer over this. I told him I would not act like the people in the experiment and he said "oh yes you would". Well for one, you do not tell me who I am. I know myself very well and I know I wouldn't succumb to any of these experiments.
 
I think I would be able to control myself, but only because I have made a concerted effort to learn to think a certain way in the face of various influences to the contrary.

Overall, I like this experiments. They say something true about how people interact that people try to avoid admitting because of emotional reasons. This kind of obfuscation generally comes back to haunt people in the way of manipulation for nefarious purposes.

That doesn't mean that people can't become different, but there would have to be a concerted effort to educate people and to change the forces making people that way in the first place. This is not some abstract "human nature" but that doesn't mean it's not true.
 
I got in a big argument with my old psych professer over this. I told him I would not act like the people in the experiment and he said "oh yes you would". Well for one, you do not tell me who I am. I know myself very well and I know I wouldn't succumb to any of these experiments.
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The idea is not to tell you who you are. It was to see how people react under extreme circumstances, especially under stress. Given the right circumstances, whatever they may be, and as cruel as they should be, it is possible to change a person's personality. There were, of course, people who did not succumb to their inner, sadistic desires, and remained true to themselves and, perhaps, their beliefs. No one should say that you would act like those people.

Notice that the experiments had little to do with feelings, and there were no brutal actions to change their personality( excepting the prisoners in stanford). It was more a matter of obedience, power and responsibility. What frightens me is that in those experiments, the subjects knew very well what they were facing. When it comes to real life situations, the stress can be tenfold higher, and the situation much worse. It depends on the person whether he can cope or not, but still, that strange deep desire is a bit frightening.
 
theres a book on the prision experiment i think.
the lucifer effect.

I've got the book but havent really had time to read it yet.
 
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