Ethical Dilemmas in Stanford Prison Experiment

P a g e | 0
Criminal Justice

P a g e | 1
Question 1
Was it ethical to do this study? Was it right to trade the suffering experienced by
participants for the knowledge gained by the research?
Answer 1
The principles of human ethics research provide that the participants of research
should be allowed to withdraw from the study any time they want. Moreover, the
participants of the research should not be subjected to dangerous or harmful treatments
which are inhuman or morally wrong. In the case of the Stanford Prison experiment, these
guidelines were violated because when one of the participants asked to withdraw the
prison, the request was denied by the researchers (Prisonexp, n.d.). It was not ethical for
the researchers to trade the suffering experienced by the participants in order to collect
relevant knowledge regarding the research.
Question 2
How do the ethical dilemmas in this research compare with the ethical issues raised
by Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments? Would it be better if these studies had never
been done?
Answer 2
I believe that the video which we were required to watch did not explain the
intention of the Stanley Milgram experiment. The actual Stanley Milgram experiment took
place after World War II when a large number of Germans were blindly following orders in
order to commit shockingly violent acts (Haslam & Reicher, 2012). Due this time, the
experiment was justified given the scenario. I believe that any attempts which are made in
order to understand how ordinary people can be ‘brainwashed’ or coerced in order to
follow violent orders from another person are worth the risk to the participants involved.
The benefits of both of these studies are to gain knowledge regarding how better
control and ethical grounds can be established in the future in order to avoid similar ethical
issues in the future. American Sociological Association provides that participants should not