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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

The Experiment

20:08 / 22.05.02

Has anyone else been watching it? It just finished on BBC2. 14 or so people are randomly divided into prisoner and guard and left to get on with it.

I found it riveting - The guards were unwilling to use their authority and were completely ineffectual; three prisoners took over before a commune system was implemented, which also broke down as without a structure there was no order leading to three of the players ready to stage a military take over.

The only thing that ruined it was the fact that the players knew they on TV so i wonder how authentic their actions were and whether or not they were playing to the camera's.

I wonder what would have happened if the psychologists had let the military take over happen. I wonder what'll happen if they do it again next year. Heck, i wonder what would have happened if the players had all been women or mixed-sex.

Do we crave order and discipline as the show claims? Are we all innately greedy?

My pyschologist studying friends (not the best source I admit) claim that it was all play acting because all the players knew nothing bad was going to happen and that if they hadn't of been aware of the cameras the experiment would have been more realistic (and probably have descended into violence much quicker).

20:14 / 22.05.02

This was excellent.
I definitely agree that had force been allowed, it would have descended into violence pretty quickly.

I'm not sure about the conclusions they drew, though. They seemed to suggest that Tyranny would fill any available power vacumn. What I saw was a couple of trouble makers who simply got bored and wanted to stir some shit up. The guy who wanted the military coup was going on and on how The Commune (which had existed for only one day!) was sitting on it's arse, doing nothing. They were in prison! What the hell did he expect them to do! They had done all the chores that needed doing (all, except his "Leuitenants", the trouble-makers) and there simply wasn't anything else to do.

I think it shows what we've known all along: some people are simply bastards and are willing to exploit others.

20:28 / 22.05.02

Possible conclusion: Anarchists are just bored.

21:58 / 22.05.02

Ganesh's old "Das Experiment" thread here

09:22 / 23.05.02

"so i wonder how authentic their actions were and whether or not they were playing to the camera's."

One of the prisoners and the shows producer were on Richard and Judy (yeah I was watching it) - the prisoner told them that some of the arguments were staged, he'd spoken to the guard earlier and agreed to have a shouting match because they were bored.

The producer was quick to add that this wasn't the case most of the time.

Still it kinda made me lose interest.

10:14 / 23.05.02

It could still be interesting if you view it as an experiment to see "how people act in a prison situation when they know they are being observed." Maybe they should put cameras into real prisons and broadcast live. Or not. Thinking out loud here.

12:19 / 23.05.02

My basic problem with it was that the experimenters seemed to be saying that, by analogy or something, the behaviour of this group of psychologically-tested (presumably all straight???) men in a locked building under entirely artificial conditions could teach us something about 'society' and social interactions. Now that just can't be true. It might tell us about what happens when you lock up a small group of psychologically-tested straight men in a building under entirely artificial conditions, but I can't see on what grounds it can be said to have any wider resonance.

13:35 / 23.05.02

Saveloy: Maybe they should put cameras into real prisons and broadcast live. Or not. Thinking out loud here.

fuck - a reality show edited from footage shot in actual prisons.
that'd do really well, I bet.

13:48 / 23.05.02

Massively unethical, but interesting to see how it affected prisoner and officer behaviour.