Ah, ethics, that whole ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ thing, when you think about it, it’s not actually all that boring. As much as some people whinge about ethics classes, when you consider the violent history mankind endured, before basic human rights were enshrined in international treaties, it’s pretty great that we are forced to take them. As much as ethics can make things difficult in terms of researching – House knows what I’m talking about – the fact that we are obliged to educate ourselves about them is a good thing.
Lets not forget that it was Nazi Germany, which brought about the first agreement between nations, setting the standards of what’s right and wrong. So if you’re anything like Dr. House it’s easy to complain ‘ugh why do we have do talk about this stuff’, but it’s important to remember that it’s necessary because without ethics horrible things can happen.
In the 1970’s a professor named Phillip Zimbardo conducted a study into the ‘effects of power on the individual’ at the university of Stanford, where he worked, using it’s students. Initially the study was mean to run for two weeks but it had to be shut down after only just 6 days, due to some patients becoming at risk of harming themselves and other patients inflicting harm. Zimbardo’s thesis was to find out if people are inherently good, or whether people would become bad if put in an environment conductive to bad behaviour.
Zimbardo achieved this through deception, he didn’t tell the subjects to true aim of the study. The subjects were then divided, at random, into two groups – prisoners and guards. The floor of the university, into the study was being held, had been turned into a crude makeshift prison. The guards were given batons and aviator sunglasses, while the prisoners lost authority over themselves. Zimbardo did not anticipate that his thesis would be so apparent in the reactions of the subjects – some prisoners became depressed and withdrawn, while the guards became power hungry and aggressive.
Zimbardo has been criticised as being highly unethical. It has been suggest that there were more conservative methods to test his theory. Many argue that full disclosure should have informed the university subject about Zimbardo’s intentions. Other suggest that because Zimbardo offered a cash reward for participating his findings were influenced by those in financial hardship – desperate university students would do anything to ease their money concerns.
It is also important to remember that ‘survivialist’ TV shows like ‘Big Brother’ or ‘Survivor’ employs many of the same tactics that ZImbardo used in his study. Just because lots of people do something doesn’t mean we blindly follow. Unfortunately it was this same kind of behaviour, not wanting to disrupt the status quo, that ended Zimbardo’s study earlier and led to Nazi Germany gaining so much power.
References:
BBC News 2002, Shocking experiment recreated for TV, BBC News, 14 May, viewed 10 April 2015, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1986889.stm >.
Theanswerto1984is 2011, The Stanford Prison Experiment, video, Youtube, 24 September, viewed 10 April 2015, < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=760lwYmpXbc>.
The Stanford Prison Experiment 1999-2015, The Stanford Prison Experiment, Phillip G Zimbardo, viewed 10 April 2015, < http://www.prisonexp.org >.
Media Mashup 