The factor that was overlooked in the experiment was the type of people who signed up for it. The participants who volunteered for the prison study were found to have higher levels of aggression, belief in social dominance, narcissism, and other traits that could predispose them to abusive behavior.
For decades, psychologists were convinced instead that power corrupts. One of the key demonstrations was the classic Stanford prison simulation, where students were randomly assigned to play the role of prisoners or prison guards. The guards ended up taking away the prisoners’ clothes and forcing them to sleep on concrete floors.
“In only a few days, our guards became sadistic,” psychologist Philip Zimbardo said. The “power of a host of situational variables can dominate an individual’s will to resist.”
The results were so shocking that a critical detail was overlooked: the students who showed up had been recruited to participate in a “study of prison life.” When psychologists ran an experiment to figure out what kinds of people are drawn to that kind of study, they found that volunteers for a prison study scored about 26 percent higher on aggression and belief in social dominance, 12 percent higher on narcissism and 10 percent higher on authoritarianism and Machiavellianism than people who signed up for psychological studies in general.
Power didn’t corrupt ordinary people. It corrupted people who already leaned toward corruption. And it wasn’t the first time.What factor was overlooked in the experiment?
the type of people who signed up for it
the time it took to get the results back
the behavior of the prison guards
the location of the experiment
1 answer
1 answer