Who Are You Beneath Your Mask?

In search of the truest version of yourself.

Picture from Unsplash

In 1971, a study conducted by Stanford University in an attempt to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, the study separated the participants — college students — into two groups, one group will act as the prisoners, and another group will act as prison officers — the study called Stanford Prison Experiment.

The study supervised by Philip Zimbardo, before meeting the assigned date, the study had to be abandoned within six days after early reports on experimental results within a conclusion that the students quickly embraced their roles — and even too much.

The group assigned as the guard had been torturing the other group. Many prisoners had accepted psychological abuse and harassed continuously. It was more than Zimbardo had expected. The guards began to play their roles seriously and forgot that they were college students. Even Zimbardo himself often thought that he was not a psychologist doing research but rather than a superintendent on the prison.

The Stanford prison experiment caused much critics from other researchers, but the experiment has proved an important study for the Psychology sciences, to prove to us how quickly it is that people can adapt their roles — playing deeply into the character — and forgetting…