"Seriously, you can look at the positive side - these studies might help us understand the effects of good leadership."

Maybe... but where are we going to find good leadership? We've already got a pretty good respresentation of what absolute power does.

Are you familiar with the article "545 People" by columnist Charlie Reese?

Sue

My understanding is that they are rare, and haven't much confirmed the original result.

And even the original experiment was not as one-sided as it is sometimes presented. The guards didn't all become evil. Some became humanitarian and helped the prisoners where they could. Some became neutral and just did what their job, or rather their role, required. One in particular became a bad egg. Later he said he was running a little experiment of his own: he wanted to see how far he could go before the psychologist stopped him. If he hadn't been there, this experiment probably would have got different results.

Understanding the problems can help guard against them. For example, you can combat bystander apathy, at least partly, by enlisting a specific individual in advance to take responsibility.

Experiments like these are why I quickly switched my major over to psychology.

I can't believe they left out Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobo_doll_experiment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDtBz_1dkuk