Video - Zimbardo Prison Experiment

The video on the Zimbardo Prison Experiment teaches a great deal about the nature of corruption and evil. This video reveals the need for regulation, understanding, and accountability in the criminal justice system.

One thing that was very interesting in the video was how the moral roles of the participants reversed. When you think of prisons, you think of prisoners as the evil and animalistic ones, however in the video the guards took on the role of aggressors. What makes this even scarier is that they are not real prisoners and this escalation of abuse only took a few days. This shows the dangers of the corrupting power of authority. In real prisons, the amount of power is greater and corruption has the time to slowly escalate. The Stanford experiment shows that it is vital that prisoners and guards are able to cooperate to prevent dehumanization. In prisons today, there are clear bounds to authority and a mutual respect between prisoners and guards. Those in the correctional system have to think about the motivations of the prisoners. Many inmates are remorseful, have good morals, and want to reform; therefore, it is crucial that they are not stereotyped and that correctional officers work with them instead of simply trying to control them.

Another important problem the video presents is the diffusion of responsibility. In the video only a few guards were out of line meanwhile the others sat idly by. The truth is by not doing anything they are just as bad as those who were abusing their authority. Each person needs to be accountable for their actions and as Zimbardo pointed out there needs to be people outside of the prison authority to keep the system in check. The guards in the experiment were blindly obeying authority, meanwhile as administrator Zimbardo was in denial. It is sad to think that in certain environments like prisons, warzones, etc. that we need people to remind us of other’s humanity and our moral responsibility. The video was