Most people believe and have heard that they are a product of their own environment, but what happens when you take those people out of their environment? The Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 set out to explain what happens when you put people in an evil place. The six day experiment transformed modern college students into prison guards and prisoners in a mock prison. The study found that when you put people into a new environment they can quickly internalize new roles and forget their old roles.
“Although people experience a great deal of socialization in role playing and role taking during childhood, this social guidance continues also in later life. Individuals learn new roles and abandon old ones as they pass through their life cycles and encounter new situations (Clinard and Meier, 2011). 24 male students were selected to participate and were randomly assigned roles of prison guards and prisoners. None of the participants had prior experience in their new role. Guards were required to wear uniforms and one way shades to hide emotion. Prisoners fad to wear dresses, stocking caps, and chains on their right foot. Only a day went by before the guards and the prisoners fell into authoritarian and submissive roles, respectively after a prisoner rebellion took place.
“Social behavior develops not only through responses to the expectations of others, which force one to confront their norms, but also through social interactions, which lead one to anticipate others’ responses and incorporate them into one’s own conduct (Clinard and Meier, 2011). After the prisoner rebellion was quelled by force with fire extinguishers and prisoner separation, the guards decided they would use psychological control to keep the prisoners in line as opposed to physical control. The guards began by rewarding prisoners who did not participate in the rebellion with high quality food. As the day when by, the prisoners who conformed and abided by the rules the most were allowed luxuries such as brushing their teeth and the removal of their bodily wastes daily. Both the guards and the prisoners began accepting their new identities becoming more controlling and submissive by the day.
“Several consequences flow from the power of community interpretations to perpetuate a person’s identity with a criminal status and role. Sometimes such a person quits resisting and ‘gives in’ to society’s definitions actively playing the part that others seem to expect (Clinard and Meier).” Prisoner #819 internalized his role as a prisoner so much that he forgot who he was. He identified himself by his prisoner number and when called a ‘bad prisoner’ by his equals he really believed it was true. Even Zimbardo himself had to remind the prisoner and assure himself that the situation they were in was just an experiment.
Although six days seem like a short period of time, it was enough to convince over twenty five men that they were people who they actually were not. When people are taken out of their primary environment, they assume and internalize their roles in the new environment. The new roles can consume a person so much in the fact that they can forget who they were in their old environment. When you put good people in an evil place, only the strong will survive.