The Global Prison Experiment 

How would you conduct an experiment on a global scale? Have similar experiments been conducted before and if so, what questions were asked by those experiments and what lessons were learned? 

Questions like --

What is the power of social situations to overwhelm individuals?

What happens when good people are put in an evil place?

Does the situation outside of you come to control your behavior or will the things inside of you, your attitudes, values, and morality allow you to rise above a negative environment? 

How will people react to an oppressive regime? 

Are decent people just as capable of committing acts against their conscience as those who have perpetrated the worst war crimes?

What happens to people who feel hopeless?

What happens to people who feel out of control? 

How long does it take for stressful situations to distort thinking?

How hard is it for victims of abuse to stand up for themselves?

How easily can people dissociate themselves from horrendous acts they see or they do?

Why will the many stand silently by as the few do horrendous things?

Is there a core in human nature that dictates that good people cannot do bad things and good people will dominate over bad situations?

How can evil situations win over good people?

Two experiments shed penetrating light on human nature and the state of the world today. Dr. Stanley Milgram in the '60's and the electric shock obedience experiment. Professor Philip Zimbardo in the 70's and the Stanford prison experiment. With those experiences considered, we return to the original question -- How would you conduct an experiment on a global scale?

And now we add a new question. Is it really just an experiment?