The Stanford Prison Experiment: Characteristics of Human Behavior and Crowd Mentality

Introduction

Human beings possess certain personality traits that help in identifying individual differences. These traits help in differentiating individuals and determination of their characteristics. However, this case may not be the same for all situations. It is argued that people tend to behave differently when certain conditions are applied to them. These conditions could be an assumption of roles or even joining a group with specific identifiable characteristics.

Engaging in a crowd has been proven to have specific effects on individual behaviors. The actions committed by an individual while participating in a group may not be attributed to their character. This action is because of deindividualization, which is described as the process by which people act in a group, and do not picture themselves as individuals, thereby leading to antinormative behavior (Vilanova, Beria and Costa 1).

Most scholars have tried to relate the deindividualization of human beings to the exposure of certain conditions. This attempt has led to several experiments in the past over the issue. Among these experiments is the Stanford Prison Experiment by Professor Philip Zimbardo (1973) that inspired the film-The Stanford Experiment. In this paper, I will be analyzing how human behavior is affected by expectations from other people. This paper will also include how human behavior change to align with group's practice. The reasons for unexpected group reaction are a consequence of psychological mechanisms of anonymity. When acting in a crowd, collective mentality takes precedence over an individual who is reduced to a inferior form of evolution. In this regard, an individual losses self-control and become mindless in violating personal and social norms (Postmes and Spears 239). This anonymity is more for larger groups. I will explore how groups create an atmosphere of safety and cause people to act irresponsibly compared to when they are alone.

Human behavior is subject to the environment that one is exposed to as they interact. It is also difficult to predict the capability of one's behavior while in a crowd. This unpredictability is because crowd mentality gives a sense of reduced responsibility and a feeling of anonymity, manipulated by the group's size (Postmes and Spears 238). The anonymity creates a temporary and imaginable cocoon that causes a person to react in a manner that is unexpected of them. In this paper, I intend to show what drives people to do these unforeseen behaviors in a crowd setting based on the film the Stanford Prison Experiment. I will also show that crowd mentality is a temporary state of mind and does not involve an individual's normalcy as represented in the same film.

In this film, Zimbardo undertakes an experiment with 15 volunteers as subjects. He creates a prison-like environment in the basement of Jordan Hall of Stanford University with the aim of establishing the main reason for abusive behaviors between guards and prisoners. The volunteers are paid $15 per day and agree to assume their roles as either guards or prisoners.

Zimbardo ensures that the conditions are as close as possible to real prison life. He also takes part in the experiment. The subjects of the research after being given the roles they are subjected to conditions that suit these roles. The prisoners undergo hardships inside the mock prison under the harsh and mean guards. It is important to note that these prisoners are only identified by their numbers in prison. This numerical identification is used to protect the real identities of the participants.

The outcome of the experiment (in the film) is that as time went by, the guards started to mistreat the prisoners and even making them undertake harsh routine activities like doing push-ups. With time, some of the prisoners break down mentally as some preferring to quit the experiment. In the end, Maslach who is Zimbardo's girlfriend advises him to end the investigation on its sixth day due to its adverse effects on the subjects including him. She notices the threat that the experiment has posed to the participants, and it is even harder for her to convince Zimbardo who has also started to succumb to it.

This research is a simulated example of how group mentality sometimes affects individuals. People tend to behave in a certain way due to the conditions that they face. Such conditions may include assuming particular roles and the expectations from people upon accepting such roles.

Analysis of the Film, the Stanford Prison Experiment

As discussed, mob mentality deprives an individual of rational decision making, and he would be duped into thinking they are doing the right this just because the crowd is doing the same. Analysis of the excerpt below from the film, the Stanford prison Experiment will help justify this claim.

Jesse Fletcher: You brought me here to legitimize this experiment, and there's nothing legitimate about this place, Phil.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo: You're right. I did not explain it well. Prisons represent a loss of freedom literally and symbolically.

Jesse Fletcher: Yeah, but that does not explain why they're wearing dresses. They're wearing dresses, Phil.

Dr, Philip Zimbardo: Yes, I understand, we are trying to strip away their individuality. Make them uniform. Feminize them.

Jesse Fletcher: Feminize them?

Dr. Philip Zimbardo: Yes. Feminize them. Take away all the things that make them...them! We are trying to understand how an institution affects and individual's behavior. We are trying to do something good.

From the above excerpt, Dr. Zimabrdo has a narrow perspective on the atrocities committed against the participants in the film. The "prisoners" are forced to wear dresses to signify their loss in personality while they are incarcerated. Dr. Zimbardo is so outspoken of the injustice committed against the participants believing it is the just course which goes a long way in developing an understanding of the human behavior.

In a mob mentality, individuals of a group are also given a sort of identity that does not reflect their true self. In the excerpt, for instance, the prisoners are made to wear dresses to feminize them and dupe them into believing they are different individuals from their actual personality. This is a good illustration to show how individuals acting in a crowd exhibit a different type of personality far from the one they portray in their conventional self.

Deindividuation is also a common practice every day life of people. For instance, during games and sports, spectators also exhibit cases of herd mentality. In these competitive games, the crowds cheer for their side to win. However, in some cases, this gets out of hand leading to opposing teams getting into a confrontation. Such a standoff of multiple groups may lead to verbal and sometimes physical aggressiveness. This aggressiveness sometimes leaves some spectators injured or even dead. For instance, the Egypt soccer match that left 74 fans dead and more than 1000 wounded.

Another case is the stock market. The values of shares rise and fall according to demand and supply. However, in some instances, the prices dip below the demand and supply limits due to peoples' mass effect. This effect involves people acting according to what others are doing, the popular opinion. The widespread belief does not follow the logic. Instead, it is applied to what other people expect from us, and this is similar to stock markets.

Crowd mentality that leads to deindividualization has affected most Americans. This deindividualization has been more so to the minority groups by the police and the white civilians. However, hatred cases have also been, in the past, known to emerge from minority groups. Some of the instances of random shootings in the U.S. are caused by this factor. It mostly happens as a group of people is conditioned, either by environment or politics, to act in a certain way. These actions lead to an even graver crisis when the minority are affected by the same effect and start believing that they are the victims of discrimination. The belief may affect individuals who may not have experienced discrimination, but due to their association with the affected, they start believing in the norms.

Police brutality is one of the biggest crises in the U.S. Police have in the past been associated with discrimination in discharging their duties, harassment by prison wardens on prisoners and silence by fellow police officers as their partners break the law. This harassment has also been seen in significant protests in the country, as the minority groups protest this discrimination.

The probable reasons for police deindividualization are the fact that they are charged with maintaining order. This responsibility may make them feel that they should act in a certain way as seen in the movie. There is a persisted outcry in the judicial correctional departments where the prisoners report cases of mistreatments and violation of fundamental human rights by very the officers who are supposed to protect their rights. All along while performing these inhuman acts, the officers believe they are doing what is required of them in reforming the convicted individuals. The film gives a representation of what the actual world looks out there in prisons' context. As a form of punishment for infractions of the institution's law, the guards ordered the inmates to do pushups. Watching the film, you would particularly abhor this kind of punishment meted on the prisoners. But upon getting to the actual truth of the matter, this kid of punishment is deemed very common in correctional institutions, formerly popularized by the Nazi regime that used this type of punishment in their concentration camps.

One particular guard, John Mark had little regard for the prisoners. In an interview he remarked, "I made a decision that I would as intimidating... as cold...as cruel as possible." He later revels the sadistic behavior was motivated by a movie he had watched earlier where a prison's guard portrayed the same tendency. He succeeds in leading colleague guards to develop such disparaging attitudes against the prisoners who are also duped into thinking so little about the prisoners. Dr. Zimbardo remarks, "One of the best guards was also on that shift, ad instead of confronting this bad guard-sadistic guard, essentially because he did not want to see what was happening, he became the golfer, he would go out to get the food and things of this kind." This remark portrays mob mentality, where the "good guard" even though is cautious of the negative attitudes of his colleagues, does joins them and takes part in the role.

Associations with other officers that have aggressive behaviors and are tough on the prisoners change the new wardens to become acquainted with this new behavior. This is more so as they feel it is expected of them to be harsh to execute their duties.

It is essential for prison wardens to be taught on how to restrain from herd mentality while dealing with the inmates. This approach may be one of the ways of restoring sanity in the prisons and ensuring that violence against the inmates is minimal. The lessons on crowd psychology should be done progressively to continually remind the guards of their roles and teach them how to handle pressure from the prisoners.

The cases of mob mentality cannot be blamed on police only but more generally to all human beings. The case has affected people in all areas in the past and continues to do so in the current generation. In this era of technology, people have resulted in a newer way of hiding behind the crowds. Take, for instance, the case of social media. People will conform to a particular behavior or...