The Stanford prison experiment

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted from Aug. 14-20, 1971 by a team of researchers led by Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University.

A group of test subjects was divided in two subsets, one assuming the role of prisoners and the other assuming the role of prison guards. The main researcher participated in the simulation himself as the prison's superintendent. The guards were only forbidden to physically harm the prisoners, but they were not given any other limitations in order to keep the peace. The goal was to see if personality traits in prisoners and guards could lead to power abuse in prisons.

The experiment was supposed to last 2 weeks, but it was already discontinued after 6 days. The reason was that the guards and prisoners got into character too deeply. When the prisoners started to rebel against the strict prison regime and the uncomfortable clothing, the guards started to display increasingly sadistic behavior in order to keep them subdued and maintain discipline.

Prisoners were subjected to regular humiliation and psychological torture, but strangely, they started to accept their treatment, even though they became increasingly stressed and troubled. None of them even wanted to quit the experiment when they were offered the chance to. The main researcher himself became so absorbed in his role as superintendent, that officials had to deny his increasingly excessive requests. He did not stop the experiment until his girlfriend confronted him with the immorality of the situation.

By that time, one-third of the guard population had shown genuine sadistic traits and many of the prisoners were emotionally traumatized. The experiment was said to have demonstrated how easily people will conform to and obey a convincing ideology and group pressure. The subjects had been selected for their psychological stability, suggesting the excesses were not due to inherent personality traits, but to the situation they were put in.

[A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University]

[A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison]

[Fromm...on Zimbardo's Prison Experiment]

[Das Experiment (2001), German Film]



[The Experiment (2010) staring Adrian Brody and Forest Whitaker]