The researchers think that the conclusions of the 1971 experiment are wrong. They point out that the guards did not start acting brutally until they were prodded by the researchers and they wonder if the intervention itself was the source of the tyranny as opposed to the inherent human nature whereby people in position of power are automatically corrupted by it.

The British researchers dwell on group identity and found in their experiment that the prisoners actually took control away from the guards. They go on to argue that people inherently need structure and in the absence of a power structure, they will tolerate tyranny. Tyranny, in essence, arises from a power vacuum. The trick, then, is to impose controls on power and to make them work responsibly.

Revolutionary paradigm shifting stuff!

Read the Guardians take on the experiment in a dismissive, cynical tone.

Sorry. You're right, my tone sounds a bit cross.

Seriously though, I have a few problems with this. I'm not sure what they're trying to prove here - they've got so many interfering safeguards in here that it would surprise me if any of the results were meaningful. I had to laugh when they said they were only using men so that they could compare it with the first study, when they're changing just about everything else about the first study to make it ethically sound as well? Warning them that this behaviour and that behaviour won't be tolerated - well yes, that's good ethically, but then they're also affecting the behaviour that's going to happen. It's not like this experiment is going to tell us anything about what people in this situation would act like naturally since it's been padded beyond recognition.

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Seriously though, I have a few problems with this. I'm not sure what they're trying to prove here - they've got so many interfering safeguards in here that it would surprise me if any of the results were meaningful.

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The minute that some one is chosen for Guard and the other Prisoner, already there is a connotation, that one is good, right and the other bad, done something wrong.

We act as we would normally as it really is a normal situation that occurs between Boss and Worker. A Boss is considered better as he makes more money and is respected for it. A Prisoner is anti establishment.

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They point out that the guards did not start acting brutally until they were prodded by the researchers and they wonder if the intervention itself was the source of the tyranny as opposed to the inherent human nature whereby people in position of power are automatically corrupted by it.

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He related that in the midst of the experiment a colleague innocently asked him about what he was using as a control group. His reaction was something like "here I am with a basement full of bad guys, and some bleeding heart academic type is asking me about control groups".