An interesting video about the famous Stanford prison experiment where volunteers are told to play the roles of prisoner or guard. It's a graphic example of how we conform to the roles we are expected to play. There has been a lot of debate about the ethics of this experiment and what we actually learnt from it.
It reminds me of a lecture I attended where the lecturer hypnotized a member of the audience and asked them to eat an apple. The apple was infact an onion. The audience member ate the onion as if it were an apple. It looked disgusting. The audience member ate all of the onion leaving only a core (not that onions have a core!)
After the session the audience member said that he knew it was an onion but it tasted like an apple. The lecturer then went on to say that hypnosis is nothing more then an enabler. It enables the hypnotized person to act as the audience expects. Without fear of repercussion. The hypnotised person can always say 'It's not my fault, I was hypnotised'. Further to that he said research showed that people find it very hard NOT to do what an expecting crowd expects. We grow up in a world where peer pressure is very powerful. What is expected of you?
At the end the Zimbardo says the study was used to lobby for prison reform. I they didn't lobby hard enough!
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