Stanford Prison Experiment: Study of Human Behavior

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The name of the experiment was the Stanford Prison Experiment, a study that was supposed to be for two weeks, lasting only six days. This study was conducted by Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist that taught at the university. Professor Zimbardo wanted to examine how volunteers would react in a simulated prison. Zimbardo and his colleagues put an advertisement in the local paper asking for participants. Then on Sunday, August 17, 1971 twenty-four applicants were placed in a mock prison, set up in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

2. Professor Zimbardo created the experiment to help better understand the impact on how a certain situation had on human behavior. Zimbardo wanted to find out how essential good human beings under the right circumstances could turn into evil and sadistic people. He started by placing an ad in the classifieds offering …show more content…

Although the participants in the Stanford Prison Experiment volunteered to take part in the study, they didn’t know that they would be subjected to mistreatment and dehumanization. Just like Day in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, he gave consent for the autopsy of Henrietta, but he did not know the doctors were going to cut and take Henrietta’s cells. Also the researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment didn’t realize or speak out about the reality of the study. They never really thought that the prisoners were real people being abused. Until one day when someone outside the study objected to the condition the prisoners were under. This is similar with the doctors and researchers working with HeLa, they didn’t speak out and did not fully realize that the HeLa cells were actually from a real person and that person had a family. Then someone brought attention to the fact that the cells used to be part of someone and they had a family that loved

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