:strip_icc()/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2018/B/N/ieAdgFRMGzWjNronI2aQ/experimento-de-stanford1.jpg)
[ad_1]
This is one of the most famous social experiences in history, told so often that some consider it a myth.
You may have heard of it already: a psychology professor is recruiting a group of students and asking them to imagine that they are in jail. Designate some as guards and others as inmates.
In a few days, "jailers" become sadistic and abuse such a form of prisoners that the experience must be stopped.
It really happened in 1971 and it was not in one of the best universities in the United States – Stanford, California.
The roots of the experiment are related to another controversial experiment conducted ten years earlier in another reputed American university, Yale.
Known as the "Milgram Experience", because it had been conducted by psychologist Yale Stanley Milgram, she aimed to examine the level of obedience of individuals to the world. ;authority.
In turn, the trials of the Nazis accused of war crimes before the Nuremberg Tribunal were at the origin of their inspiration. Most of them had based their defense on the badertion that they "only took orders" from their superiors.
Milgram wanted to test how well a "good" human being was able to harm another by obedience.
His experience aroused even more controversy because he lied to the participants telling them that it was a study of memory and learning.
The scientist divided 40 volunteers into two random groups: one declared that they would be teachers and the others, that they would be students.
He then took the "students" to another room and asked the "teachers" to test the memory of their "students".
The investigator ordered them to punish those who are mistaken for electric shock. The machine they used would emit discharges ranging from 50 to 450 volts. The maximum power was accompanied by an inscription "Danger: violent shock".
65% of "teachers" used the meter's maximum voltage at one point, despite the shouting of "students" in the next room – Fot o: BBC
About two-thirds of the "educators" used the meter's maximum voltage at one at any given time and all reached the 300-volt mark.
The device, however, does not go so far as to shock, and the cries that the "teachers" hear coming from the next room are actually recordings.
A decade later, Philip Zimbardo, professor of social psychology at Stanford University, s he wished to go further into Milgram's experience and examine how tenuous the line separating good from evil is.
He wondered if a "good" person could change his way of depending on his environment.
He then posted on the walls of the university a statement offering $ 15 a day to volunteers willing to spend two weeks in a false prison.
The study was funded by the government, which wanted to understand the origins of conflict in the US penitentiary system.
Zimbardo selected 24 students, mainly white and middle clbad, who separated them into two groups, randomly giving them the role of guardians and prisoners and asking them to return home.
In fact, the experience began abruptly: real police officers, who had agreed to participate in the project, went to the homes of the "prisoners" and arrested them, accusing them of theft.
They were handcuffed and taken to the police station, where they were enrolled and blindfolded at a so-called local jail – but which was actually the granary of the Stanford Psychology Department, which had been sufficiently transformed realistically, into a prison. [Image:EricECastrovialaBBC"title="Platesesouvientdel'expériencequiainspirétroisfilmsetplusieurslivres-Photo:EricECastrovialaBBC"src="data:image/jpeg;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"/>
A plaque recalls the experience, which inspired three films and several books – Photo: Eric E. Castro via BBC
