A creepy movie to watch.
In 1971, Professor Zimbardo transformed the basement of Stanford University's psychology department building into a mock prison, and selected 24 young people who were physically and mentally healthy, law-abiding and emotionally stable from the students who signed up for the experiment. They are divided into two groups, one group plays the role of prison guards, and the other group plays prisoners, living in a mock prison. The original plan was to observe physical, psychological and behavioral changes in the two groups over the next two weeks. But I didn't expect that in less than a week, too many unexpected things happened, and the experiment originally scheduled for two weeks was terminated on the sixth day.
The film is based on this real event, the "Stanford Prison Experiment".
At the beginning, the participants didn't really take it seriously, and then the professor said something that made me ponder.
Psychological suggestion
I don't understand what the original intention of the professor who did this experiment was, psychological research? To prove human nature is evil? What's the point? Has the purpose been achieved? The conclusion is the famous "Lucifer effect"?
Experiments that treat people like guinea pigs are insane in my opinion.
The protagonist No. 77 is undoubtedly the most impressive existence. He is disobedient and will resist and challenge authority, but the response he gets is worse and worse every time.
Especially the part where it was locked in the black box, I could feel my hands shaking while watching the movie.
Although I have not had a similar experience, I am really a person who is particularly afraid of the dark. In that claustrophobic space, people will feel extreme fear and extreme insecurity.
Inexplicably reminds me of the experience of watching ghost movies when I was a child. Even though it was broad daylight and my brother was beside me, I was still frightened. Maybe it's because my sense of substitution is too strong. Every time I watch a movie, I always imagine myself being in it, and the actors are talking beside me.
The stronger the sense of substitution, the easier it is to get lost.
Just like the characters in it, it's only two days, and the direction of things in just 48 hours is out of control.
The last part where the female professor was humiliated was particularly ironic. She herself was the manipulator of the experiment, but she was toyed with by the subject in the end.
So why is that so? environment? There is no doubt that the impact of the environment on people is huge, but I think the deeper reason is caused by the deprivation of free will and the lack of personal identity. Many times, No. 77 resists because he knows exactly that this is a game, not the real world. But most people have forgotten this fact, and instead have been succumbed to power, have lost their personality, and take the number on their clothes seriously.
From the beginning to the end, the most incomprehensible thing for me was why the subject was so deeply involved in the play, until I went over the wall and saw the interview with the subject on youtube.
guard actor
prisoner cosplayer
Let's see what Zimbardo himself has to say.
Are people like this in real life, from the very beginning, they are slowly assimilated by the environment beyond recognition.
So we will admire and like those who are different.
One of the most fundamental principles of social research is not to harm subjects.
One of the things I'm curious about is what happened to the subjects of those experiments, and what impact this experiment had on them. Then I found information about some people. Personally, I think it's a little fake, and more people should be supplements.
How far does the environment affect people? How do people's perceptions of identity guide behavior?
More questions popped up in my mind.
Jumping out of the movie and returning to reality, how to deal with the relationship between the environment and myself, recognize my identity, and better deal with the problem of identity setting are things that have guiding significance for me.
At the end, quote what Tbag said in the jailbreak:
Everything is not as it seems.
We are captives of our own identity living in the prison of our own creation.
PS: There are three versions of the movie: the German version of "Death Experiment" in 2001, the American version (Brody) in 2009, and the "Stanford Prison Experiment" in 2015. The 15-year version is closer to the truth, and Zimbardo himself participated in directing the shooting.
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