Example Of Essay On Utilizing The Learnings Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

Altruism is the genuine and selfless concern for the wellbeing of others. It centers, on a predisposition among individuals, to collaborate with others, as well as to punish those who act contrary to the norms of cooperation. This gets done at a personal price, even while it is improbable that the costs will ever be recovered. It is altruism that can create a harmonious society in which every single person feels secure. One of the major questions that the Stanford prison experiment set out to answer was: what will win between an evil situation and trustworthy people when the two were brought in confrontation? It was concluded from the experiment that, more often than not, the situation wins. The upright morals and the middle-class civility, under which the young men involved in the experiment were brought up, went out the window.
Institutions can create altruism by cultivating social responsibility among its individuals. Sensitizing people on the cost of doing nothing about evil situations can make them altruistic. When an evil situation is left unchecked, it brews more evil to the detriment of the wellbeing of the greater society. Selfishness resulted in the mistreatment and dehumanization of the prisoners. This lesson from the experiment can be used to create selflessness among individuals in any organizational setting. Individuals in any institutional setting need to be taught that the benefits of altruism are always greater than the cost. It is paramount, therefore, that individuals learn that an evil situation when let to thrive results in harm to fellow individuals and society as a whole.
Individuals need to learn to take responsibility in situations that need action to be taken. Avoiding the diffusion of responsibility in any institution can be a notable achievement. It can be achieved by showing people that only “they” can act. Being each other’s keeper is the guiding principle to altruism in any society. Teaching people that it could have been them in the same dehumanizing situation can help create the “Gabriel effect” in any institutional setting.