What was the Stanford Prison Experiment?

The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo in 1971, was a landmark study in social psychology. The goal was to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power by focusing on the struggle between prisoners and prison guards. Here is a summary of the experiment:

• Setup and Participants: The experiment recruited college students through an advertisement for a study on prison life. From the 75 respondents, 24 were selected for their normal and healthy profiles. These students were randomly assigned roles as either guards or prisoners.

• Conditions: Dr. Zimbardo and his team created a simulated prison environment in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Guards were given symbols of power like billy clubs and military-style uniforms, while prisoners wore uniforms with numbers instead of their names, dehumanizing them.

• Progression: The experiment quickly escalated. Within 36 hours, the first prisoner exhibited emotional breakdown symptoms, and similar incidents followed daily. The guards started showing sadistic behavior and creative cruelty towards prisoners.

• Duration and Termination: Originally intended to last two weeks, the study was terminated after six days due to the extreme psychological distress exhibited by participants and the ethical concerns arising from the guards' abusive behaviors and the prisoners' suffering.

• Findings: The experiment demonstrated the power of situational factors and social roles in influencing individual behavior. Normal college students adapted to their assigned roles to an alarming extent, underscoring how social environments can overpower individual dispositions 1 2.

Dr. Zimbardo emphasized that the study illustrated the profound impact social dynamics and assigned roles can have on behavior, often leading good people to perform harmful actions under certain conditions.