When Ordinary People are Given Power. by Addisen

When Ordinary People are Given Power. by Addisen - October 2026 Scholarship Essay

Have you ever wondered what would happen if an ordinary person was put into a place of extreme authority? Would they stay the same or would the situation change them? Studying the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment made me see how complicated human behavior really is. Before learning about Philip Zimbardo's experiment I was confident that your personality determined your actions, but I was proved very wrong. Zimbardo ran a short study at Stanford University where he created a fake prison and randomly assigned college students as guards or prisoners. The experiment quickly went down hill when the guards became aggressive and abusive when not previously known to be. After only 6 long days the experiment ended due to increasing stress from the prisoners. This study deepened my understanding of psychology and sociology because I now understand how people's surroundings may affect them. The assigned guards did not enter the experiment as fractious people, but when handed uniforms and authority they were quick to want control over others. This showed me we can't always judge someone's behavior without knowing what might be happening around them. Though this experiment was seen as unethical I think it can give us good insight on how humans work, it taught me to question what might be happening around someone before judging their reaction to stress.