Power, Roles, and the Dichotomy of Human Character

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The Zimbardo study aimed to investigate how readily people will conform to the roles they are put in. Can good people go bad? Can bad people change their behavior? I believe human character plays an important role in deciding if an individual will choose to be evil or good, not power, or the roles they are put in. Just because someone is in a position of power doesn't necessarily bring the evil out in them. There are many people who are in power, but they also choose not to allow power to lead them into evil circumstances. I believe certain individuals use power as an excuse to portray what has been within them all along, evilness! For example, the guards at Abu Ghraib and the police brutality that occurs in our country right …show more content…

Were the roles predetermined for both guards and prisoners by manipulation? Was the environment designed to encourage and require them to act in a certain way? Did the subjects feel the sense of being watched encouraged them to perform in a certain way? Did Zimbardo himself carry the power because he acted as the warden? Was the psychological test a key factor in choosing who would perform what, and how? Were the findings about a prison setting only or about life in general? If it was about prisoners and guards, I do not believe it would be that easy for individuals to conform so quickly unless they already harbored those types of feelings. If it was about life in general, history shows us that Hilter, David Koresh, Warren Jeffs, John Wayne Gacy, Jeffery Dahmer, Jim Jones and Charles Manson had evil within them way before they changed the lives of so many people in the worse way. I am sure some would say these individuals did have some position of power. Power? No! Manipulation? Yes. If someone is already dealing with aggressiveness, authoritarianism, narcissism, social dominance, diminished empathy, and antisocial behavior, being in a position of manipulation could give them the excuse or desire to feed off those negative

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