Listening 13 – Listen for specific words

The treatment of prisoners by prison guards has been a hot topic in psychology and over the years. In 1973, Philip Zimbardo decided to set up an experiment in a basement at Stanford University to the extent to which groups of volunteers would conform to their respective roles as guards and prisoners.

The main premise of this was to test the assertion that the perceived brutality of prison guards owed more to their innate personalities than the of the prison environment.

After the mock prison was constructed, seventy-five volunteers were screened for psychological abnormalities and offered fifteen dollars a day to play their roles as guards or prisoners. Twenty-one participants were selected and randomly their roles as prisoners or guards.

To keep the situation as as possible, the ‘prisoners’ were arrested at their homes on an unannounced day and taken to the local police station, before being processed and to the ‘prison.’ During processing the prisoners were fingerprinted, photographed and ‘booked’ as though they were real criminals. Afterwards they were blindfolded and driven to the psychology department basement, which had been converted into a prison, complete with tiny cells, on the doors and windows, and bare, whitewashed walls.

The ‘guards’ were given , whistles, handcuffs and shaded glasses to restrict eye contact with ‘prisoners.’ The only real rule set in place was the prohibition of physical violence – and Zimbardo settled back to the situation as it unfolded. The experiment was scheduled to run for 14 days.

Within just a few , the prison ‘guards’ had begun harassing the ‘prisoners’ with insults and assigning them petty and demeaning tasks and duties. The prisoners also began to assume their roles, gossiping about prison and sneakily telling the guards snippets of information about their co-prisoners in the hope of gaining favor. They took the rules of the prison increasingly , even siding with guards over potential troublemaking inmates.

As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and strict. One of the prisoners began to and cry uncontrollably, and had to be removed from the role-play after just 36 hours of incarceration. His thoughts had spiraled into the realm of irrationality and he had begun to veer towards deep . Three others had to be removed over the following days due to fears about the deterioration of their mental state. All of these ‘prisoners’ were able to resume their normal mental functions after removal from the experiment.

After just six days the researchers decided to curtail the experiment, concerned about possibly serious psychological or emotional trauma to the participants.

The study some interesting conclusions about personality, human nature, and the power of socially- and institutionally-supported authority. When prison guards are accused of being vicious and despicable towards prisoners, it may not necessarily be due to in their individual character – perhaps it is the result of an inherently flawed system and circumstances that abuse.