This infamous Stanford Prison Experiment has etched its place in history, as a notorious example of the unexpected effects that can occur when psychological experiments into human nature are performed.
Like a real life ‘Lord of the Flies', it showed a degeneration and breakdown of the established rules and morals dictating exactly how people should behave towards each other.
The study created more new questions than it answered, about the amorality and darkness that inhabits the human psyche.
As a purely scientific venture, the experiment was a failure, but it generated some results that give an insight into human psychology and social behavior. The ethical implications of this study are still discussed in college and undergraduate psychology classes all across the world.
In the days of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo abuses, the Stanford Prison Experiment is once again becoming relevant, showing that systematic abuse and denial of human rights is never far away in any prison facility.
This study is so well known that a Hollywood movie about the Stanford Prison Experiment is going to be released in 2009. The experiment has also been the basis of many similar studies, over the years, but these have had much stricter controls and monitoring in place.
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