The Power of Force: Human Behavior Under Pressure

People will do some of the craziest things when any level of force is placed upon them. People will succumb to the pressure of doing things they had never imagined they could do. Just recently people can look at the events of the revolts in Northern Africa and the extremes the people did to over throw their governments, events at Abu Ghraib, and the recent riots in Missouri. When mass hysteria or force from others is involved people will succumb to the situation and may do things they would normally deem immoral. Several experiments from the field of Social Psychology have demonstrated the fact, even the strongest willed person may succumb to the pressure that others place on them. The ‘power of the situation theories’ explain how several

In this study several participant were selected for an experiment on ‘vision’. They were then sent to a room with seven other participants (confederates) who unbeknownst to the original participant were working with the experimenter. The participants were then shown two cards. One with a single line on it, the other had 3 lines to choose from. On the second card was a clear exact replica of the first card with one other line being shorter and the last line being longer. As the participants (confederates) were asked to choose which line on the second card match the first they all picked the wrong one deliberately. When it was time for the original participant to choose the results show that 75% of the participants chose wrong at least once, and only 25% never chose the wrong answer. These results validated Asch’s hypothesis that social pressure from a majority group would cause a person to

In this study Zimbardo chose 21 participants from a pool of 75, all male college students, screened prior for mental illness, and paid $15 per day. He then gave roles. One being a prisoner and the other being a prison guard, there were 3 guards per 8 hour shift, and 9 total prisoners. Shortly after the prisoners were arrested from their homes they were taken to the local police station, booked, processed, given proper prison attire and issued numbers for identification. Before the study, Zimbardo concocted a prison setting in the basement of a Stanford building. It was as authentic as possible to the barred doors and plain white walls. The guards were also given proper guard attire minus guns. Shortly after starting the experiment the guards and prisoners starting naturally assuming their roles, Zimbardo had intended on the experiment lasting a fortnight. Within 36 hours one prisoner had to be released due to erratic behavior. This may have stemmed from the sadistic nature the guards had adopted rather quickly, dehumanizing the prisoners through verbal, physical, and mental abuse. The prisoners also assumed their own roles rather efficiently as well. They started to rat on the other prisoners, told