http://www.cracked.com/article_16239_p2.html
5 Psychological Experiments That Prove Humanity is Doomed
By Alexandra Gedrose
The Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
The Setup:
Psychologist Philip Zimbardo wanted to find out how captivity affects
authorities and inmates in prison. Sounds innocent enough. Seriously,
what could go wrong?
Zimbardo transformed the Stanford Psychology Department's basement
into a mock prison. Subjects volunteered by simply responding to a
newspaper ad ...
... and then passing a test proving good health and high-quality
mental stability, which are very important factors in deciding who
goes to prison. These volunteers were all male college students who
were then divided arbitrarily into 12 guards and 12 prisoners.
Zimbardo himself decided that he wanted to play too, and elected
himself Prison Superintendent. The simulation was planned to run for
two weeks.
Yep, nothing at all can go wrong with this.
