Stanford Prison Experiment: The Impact of Bad Environments on Good People

Does bad influence impact humanity and good intentions? In the Stanford prison experiment, civilians were asked to play either an officer or prisoner role for research purposes. Being in an evil place, took a toll on the prisoners (civilians), being treated harsh by the officers caused them to rebel and act out. After some of the participants took the officer role to serious, this led the prisoners to show signs of depression, anger, rage and other disturbances.

Police procedures used to arrest people can lead them to feel fearful because they are being treated as if they aren’t a human being. The arrest of people become a routine for police officers, therefore they don’t have an emotion towards the scared individual making it seem like they’re cruel towards them. Some techniques that are used by officers during an arrest include handcuffs, taser, physical force etc., these methods to detain criminals make them feel helpless, and afraid.

If I oversaw this experiment, I wouldn’t allow this study to be performed on innocent civilians. However, if I did perform the experiment, I would have exterminated them earlier, because the guards did take the experiment too seriously, hurting the prisoners when they were given guidelines. As for a follow up study, I would have performed it at an actual jail watching new criminals enter that bad environment and observe how they react in that bad environment.

If the experiment was being done on urban working class, I feel like the reaction would be slightly differ from working class. The harsh environment that urban working class are used to would make them tough when put into this situation. Due to the rough living conditions they would easily adapt to the harsh scenario presented during the prison experiment. If women were put in this situation I think they would have broken down easy like the men in the experiment. Women are often seen as fragile and emotional, so it is possible that they would break down during this type of harsh treatment.

If I was a prisoner, I wouldn’t be able to handle this mistreatment. Being isolated in a cell and being harassed by officers would make me go insane as did the men in the experiment. I couldn’t handle being a prisoner for five or more years, being locked away without being able to live a free lifestyle would get hard. Having to follow all these rules and regulations from the guards would get frustrating, and make you feel restrained from living your life. Therefore, I think the Stanford prison experiment was an eye opener, allowing people to see the reality of prison life, and how bad environments has a great impact of good people.