Stanford Prison Experiment

In the assigned reading on the Stanford prison experiment, conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo, the psychology of both prisoners and prison guards in a prison setting. The subjects were young men of college age, who voluntarily signed up to participate. The experiment was initially supposed to study how labeling, and social expectations affect behavior. While the experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, but was shut down after six days. What the incident did show was how easily "average people" can assume an authoritarian role very easily. Over the course of the study, many guards became increasingly cruel, to the point some "prisoners" became effectively traumatized. This veer towards tyranny and cruel action, based on a relationship of power vs powerlessness calls to mind a quote by John Dalberg-Acton.  "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority, still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority." A quote that in my mind summarizes the results of the study perfectly. The guards were just poor college age kids, far from "great men", and thus their corruption was almost guaranteed.