The Incarceration of the Innocent: A Look into the Stanford Prison Experiment

Though simulated, the Stanford Prison Experiment seriously affected its participants.

The social sciences offer much knowledge about people, cultures, organizations, and societies. Among the field’s many studies are those that explain human psyche and behavior. One classic research is the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) that sought to analyze human nature in the context of a simulated penitentiary.

An overview of the SPE

Using a grant from the US Office of Naval Research, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo and his team of social psychologists constructed a pseudo-detention centre within the Stanford University’s Department of Psychology building in 1971. According to its website, the SPE aimed to determine ‘the psychological effects of prison life’ on college students who functioned as inmates and/or jail protectors (Zimbardo 2011, p. 4). What could have been a two-week simulation act ended abruptly on its sixth day due to abusive fake jail guards and the strong objection of Dr. Zimbardo’s colleague who ‘questioned its morality’ (p. 38).

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): His Life and Some Ideas

Thomas Hobbes viewed human nature as violent.

A political absolutist, Hobbes is described as among the proponents of liberalism. His father, also named Thomas, was a vicar in England who left his children in the care of their rich paternal uncle. This episode somehow echoes the five adjectives he used to depict the nature of human beings – “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” (Pratt 1). It also forebodes his idea that the right and need for security is an individual’s primary concern which only an authoritative body or the monarchy could provide (Encyclopaedia Britannica 970).