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Zimbardo Social Influence

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Since the beginning of time people have been making decisions. Whether it is what to wear or what food to eat. Decisions are based on the manner in which the personality, attitudes and behavior of a person's individual influence and is influenced by social groups. If the person was influenced or had some figure of authority that influences their decision making process. The influence of authority can change one’s decisions but it can also make someone do something that they would not do if not under the influence of the greater authority.This applies greatly to the Nazi soldiers in WWII when the Nazi SS were told to conduct a mass murder of over six million Jews, along with gypsies, homosexuals, trades unionists and the disabled. What led people to murder …show more content…

Several of the guards became very cruel, especially when they thought the cameras that were recording them were turned off. They performed blindly to their assigned role.
After only six days of a planned two weeks, the experiment was shut down for fear one of the prisoners would be seriously hurt. Healthy college students are transformed into unstable, suffering prisoners and brutal prison guards by the power of the situation in which they found themselves.
It is one of the best known psychology experiments ever done. It showed how social roles can influence our behavior. Zimbardo was studying how humans respond to being held captive and what was emulated as a prison life was like. The intent was to examine captivity but resulted in showing how impressionable and obedient we become when provided with a legitimate ideology and social and institutional support.
Zimbardo’s Experiments demonstrated the powerful role that situations can play on human behavior. It also showed how quickly one can change personalities when given more responsibility than they already have. His aim was to find out how prisoners would act under these atrocious

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