Summary Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo conducted a study funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research that aimed at getting a better understanding of the psychology of aggression, labels, and power dynamics. 22 mentally and physically healthy participants were recruited through a newspaper ad and randomly assigned the role of “prison guard” or “prisoner.” A portion of the basement of the Stanford University psychology building was converted into a makeshift “prison”. The “prisoners” were informed that most of their right right would be taken away and the “guards” were given minimal instructions. The results were so extreme that what they had planned to be a two-week experiment was abruptly interrupted after only six days.

Zimbardo (1973) wanted to test
75 people responded and, after answering an extensive questionnaire and being interviewed by the researchers, the 24 applicants who were determined to be mentally and physically the healthiest were selected to be part of the experiment. Two of the subjects would be on “standby.” The participants were mostly middle-class, white students. None of them knew each other prior to the experiment. Half of the subjects was randomly assigned to be “guards” while the other half was assigned to be
Some of the ethical issues that were of concern were the lack of fully informed consent by participants (nobody, including the researchers, knew exactly what would happen), and that the prisoner-subjects had been degraded and not protected from psychological harm, experiencing significant levels of stress along with loss of dignity. Extensive follow-up was done and showed no long-lasting effects in the prisoner or guard