Final Paper

Jayde Crawford Department of Psychology, University of North Florida, SOP 3214C, Experimental Social Psychology Dr. Curtis Phills April 18, 2024

Abstract

In this social psychology experiment. I will be testing the hypothesis of whether good vs evil occurs more in prison guards or prisoners. Does the lack of power or having more power of someone else turn you evil or good? Taking 200 participants who are randomly assigned to prison guard or prisoner, prions guards will keep watch over prisoners. Prion guards have more power of control as they can punish prisoners for not obeying the rules. Prisoners share a cell making it easy for prisoners to converse and try to breakout or bend the rules. In this experiment, I found that there was a significant difference between good and evil and prison guards and prisoners. 

Introduction

What are the effects on good and evil versus prisoners and prison guards? For this study, I will be using a social experiment. This task involves 200 participants for the span of one week. In this experiment participants were randomly assigned to either prisoners or prison guards. If they were chosen as prisoners, they were picked up in a police car, hand cuffed, and taken to a cell where they were kept as a prisoner for one week. If they were assigned to prison guards, they dressed in uniform and had a defense stick as their “weapon”. Prison guards had to keep watch of the prisoners for one week. If prisoners did not obey the rules, then guards were allowed to punish them by excluding them from the group like solitary confinement. 
My research question is, can a person change based on their circumstances. For example, if someone who is usually quite is now a prison guard, will they become evil? If someone is usually louder a prisoner, will they become good? Good and evil vs. prisoners and prison guards. My dependent variable is good and evil. My manipulated variable is prisoners and prison guards. I can manipulate the variable of prisoners and prison guards by allowing all prisoners to be in one room allowing them to communicate and push the boundaries. I can manipulate prison guards by allowing them to have more power like punishing prisoners for breaking rules and maybe some will even taunt prisoners. 

Methods

Participants and Design I let participants sign up from the UNF campus. Taking 200 participants for one week to either be a prisoner or a prison guard. They signed a waiver and a permission slip. They read an agreement of what was allowed and expected and agreed to undergo the conditions of the research experiment. Procedure Prison guards kept watch of the prisoners for one week. Allowing them to use the bathroom, shower, sleep, eat, and socialize. Prisoners were altogether allowing them to come up with ways to escape or bend the rules. While prison guards were allowed to punish bad behavior or rule breaking by using solitary confinement, yelling, or harsh words. Materials A building from the UNF campus to use as the holding cell for prisoners, and prison guards to keep watch. Handcuffs, uniforms for the prison guards, and jumpsuits for the prisoners.

Expected Results

In order to examine the impact of good vs. evil on prisoners vs. prison guards, I conducted a 2 (Good: Prison guards vs. prisoners) X 2 (Evil: Prison guards vs. prisoners) ANOVA. The main effect of good vs. evil was not significant, F (1,???) = ???, p=???. Participants in the prison guard condition (M = ?, SD = ???) did not have more good than participants in the prisoners condition (M = ?, SD = ???). The main effect Prison guards vs. prisoners was significant, F (1,???) = ???, p=???. Participants in the prisoners condition (M = ?, SD = ???) did have more good than participants in the prison guards condition. The interaction between good vs evil and prisoners vs. prison guards was significant, F (1,???) = ???, p=???. Among participants in the prison guards condition, good (M = 20, SD = ???) was related to evil (M = 40, SD=???). Among participants in the prisoners condition, good (M=40, SD=???) was related to evil (M=20, SD=???), F(1,???) =???, p=???. A one-way ANOVA was performed to compare the effect of good vs evil on prison guards and prisoners. A one-way ANOVA revealed that there was a statistically significant difference in good vs evil between at least two groups F (1,???) = ???, p=???. Tukey’s HSD Test for multiple comparisons found that the mean value of good vs evil was significantly different between prison guards and prisoners. p=???, ??? = (???,???) There was a statistically significant difference between prion guards and prisoners, p = ???.

Discussion

In this study, I compared good and evil to prisoners and prison guards in a social experiment. I randomly assigned 30 participants to either prisoners or prison guards. I wanted to see if the results varied by lack of power or too much power and if people could adapt to their new life considering the circumstances. Would prisoners be better than evil and would prison guards be more evil than good. From the results I was able to determine if there was a significant or not a significant level of difference between good and evil vs prisoners and prison guards.

References:

Alford, C. F. (1999). A psychoanalytic study of evil. American Imago, 56(1), 27–52. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.1999.0001

Ferchaud, A., & Beth Oliver, M. (2019). It’s my choice: The effects of moral decision-making on narrative game engagement. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 11(2), 101–118.https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.11.2.101_1

Freckelton, I. (2013). Review of Cruelty: Human evil and the human brain. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 20(6), 942–944. https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2013.860867

Huang, K., Greene, J. D., & Bazerman, M. (2019). Veil-of-ignorance reasoning favors the greater good. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(48), 23989–23995. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1910125116

Licon, J. A. (2023). Some moral benefits of ignorance. Philosophical Psychology, 36(2), 319–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/09515089.2022.2042230

Martin, A. (2014). Review of Wickedness: A philosophical essay (Routledge Classics) 2nd edition. Existential Analysis, 25(1), 162–164.

McDermott, R. (2007). Review of The Lucifer effect: Understanding how good people turn evil. Political Psychology, 28(5), 644–646. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00597.x

Putra, I. E., Campbell-Obaid, M., & Suwartono, C. (2021). Beliefs about human nature as good versus evil influence intergroup attitudes and values. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 27(4), 576–587. https://doi.org/10.1037/pac0000469

Smith, M. B. (2007). The sociogenesis of evil. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 13(4), 463–465. https://doi.org/10.1080/10781910701667788

van Prooijen, J.-W., & van de Veer, E. (2010). Perceiving pure evil: The influence of cognitive load and prototypical evilness on demonizing. Social Justice Research, 23(4), 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-010-0119-y