The standford prison experement a look at reality tv and it's consquences.
.png)
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
I am starting to branch out a bit into some more diverse media like this blog evolves and I mature as a writer as I was talking to my parents ( yes I live with my parents but am in the process of moving) and an ad for the Australian Big brother was on and I was actually looking for some research for another blog post and it hit me that Big Brother and it's related reality TV shows are actually a massive trial of the Stanford prison experiment in reality framed as a harmless TV competition yet we see the same tactics play out and the behaviors' mirror it.
These maladaptive behaviors are the manipulation of a situation to a person's personal advantage, and power plays on people who don't have assertiveness about them. I know that there was a situation where people lied about personal relationships to their advantage and I know that big brother did what they thought was ethical and brought a laptop into the "camera/ video diary room" ( not sure of the lingo) and we see that the person that lied about the relationship was called to account. The behaviors and situations that a person is put into can be quite trauma-inducing in the way that it forces people to do things that they aren't comfortable doing, or they do to simply stay in the game.
We also see situational ethics so if a person can get ahead they will take the opportunity to do it and essentially screw the other players over. So things like a constant had a very real fear of chickens so big brother decided to take chickens into the house yet this was recorded as a real phobia.
I only watch the ad's for it as it holds no entertainment value for me this got me wondering what is reality TV and what value it brings to TV viewing and I found out that it so it's classified as unscripted reality TV moments. Yet in big brother, you don't actually know if it's staged or not as you are seeing the camera set up in professional shots, and is it scripted in the fact that they are trying to predict how things will play out due to the person personality and how they have reacted in the past. I know that some ethics are quite questionable in reality. This is the personal situational debate the debate that says that if you are put in a questionable situation to survive you won't stick to the ethics you would go along with the flow that gives you the most power. This is in contrast to Kant that says that people are inherently good and that people are only as good as the situations they are put into. So if you were to be placed as a guard in the experiment and given glasses to prevent eye contact and very few constraints what would happen to you. People in the thought experiment always said well I would have compassion for the prisoners and treat them fairly, yet this isn't the case we see that people in the real experiment went way too far and I know that Dr. Jorden Peterson said that you need to be able to become a monster to understand yourself and he often says no if you were to be a guard you would enjoy having that power. I know that I was just doing my job isn't an excuse for harm anymore under the UN human rights act as we see in the Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil that I was just doing my job came under fire as others refused to obey orders.
We also see that people were unable to think for themselves. This also came into play about going along with what is popular not what is right as people see to see that people are viewing this program.
I will start to have a look at the long-term trauma that this type of long-term exposure to this type of stress could have in reality as it goes to the power imbalance in disability care and how it can attract the wrong type of person. As we see there is a massive power imbalance in the way that people with a disability and the power that people have over them especially if they have an intellectual disability.
The only reality program I have any sort of respect for is a program called Bondi Rescue and it is a good mix of reality and education about the dangers of the beach and education on the role of a lifeguard in Australia and insight into beach culture.
Reading this post.
Stanford prison experiment - Wikipedia
Person–situation debate - Wikipedia
Eichmann in Jerusalem - Wikipedia
Trier social stress test - Wikipedia
The Trier Social Stress Test Protocol for Inducing Psychological Stress | Protocol (jove.com)
Comments
Post a Comment