User:GiannaChiovaro/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Concord Prison Experiment

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen this article to evaluate because when I saw the title, it immediately reminded me of the Stanford Prison Experiment. It was where the university basement of Stanford became an imitation prison. It was such an unethical and dehumanizing experiment, that it was mandated for cancellation earlier than it was supposed to last. The experiment showed how far people are to take advantage of their positions in power, even if it meant mistreating other human beings. Thus, I grew interest to this prison experiment as well. This article matters because it could potentially hold a treatment to aid in criminal recovery. Treating insane minds with psychoactive drug psilocybin, is such a unique and absurd approach.The experiment concluded with shocking results of a slightly lower recidivism rate amongst those criminals who partook in the experiment. They even took a personality test which showed somewhat progress and more sanity within their criminal minds. I was shocked to hear that this drug could encourage people to become sober from alcohol and drug-abuse, and even encourage prosocial; desired behaviors amongst a society where there is a vast amount of crime.

Evaluate the article
The Lead Section was perfectly written. It was concise and straight to the point, which is beneficial for a reader who wants key concepts about the Concord Prison Experiment. I can clearly understand what the general overview looks like. The content is certainly relevant towards the experiment, and there is meaningful information about the staff, results, follow-up study, and even relative research encouraging this psychoactive drug, psilocybin. The article is up to date with the experiment's results and data however, it would be beneficial to add modern-day research on the correlation between the recidivism rate and psilocybin. It is unclear if this treatment is still being used or experimented based on this article. The idea of a new experimentation is recommended to take place however it is unknown if any actions towards this idea are or were in the making. All of the content provided is relevant, and are major points about this experiment. This article is fairly neutral, as it simply states the facts without opinion. After a thorough analysis, there is no evidence of bias towards a specific person or idea. The viewpoints of the prisoners who received psilocybin is greatly underrepresented. It would have been valuable to see more specific data relevant towards their perspective, and the progress made. It also would have been just as important to represent the prisoners who showed no progress after taking the psilocybin. While references and citations are provided, there is still a lack. On the top of the article, Wikipedia states that "...the article needs additional citations for verification." There is some unsourced material present and, one of the links do not work or exist. There are references from a diverse spectrum of authors. The writing quality here is quite organized and professional. The article is organized in chronological order introducing the experiment, and then discussing its aftermath. The article lacks images that help provide a better understanding of the content being discussed. There is one general image of Concord Prison, but there is no visual appeal. Additionally, the image could have been better captioned including more specifics towards the image. The one photo that is shown adhere's to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. It would have been better, if there was a diversity of photos to see throughout reading the article. The talk page discussion for this article is very minimal, as there is one suggestion to add citations in multiple places where they are missing. The article is part of, "WikiProject Psychoactive and Recreational Drugs", and at the moment it is marked as inactive. Overall, the article did a pleasant job providing the very basic information of the Concord Prison Experiment. One could read this article, pretty quickly, and understand the overall gist as well as its outcomes. The article lacks in appeal, and sufficient citations in all sections necessary. This article can be improved by adding a variety of images, fulfilling the need of citations, and also adding relevant-modern connections to update the reader with an understanding of how this experiment may or may not benefit society today.