Stanford Prison Experiment

Growing up we are often led to believe that we are a product of our own environment, but what happens to us when we are taken out of our environment and put in that of one with the presence of evil? In the summer of 1971 at Stanford University, three psychologists by the name of Craig Haney, Curtis Banks, and Philip Zimbardo, conducted a relatively simple experiment to test the question: what happens when you put ordinary people in positions of power? The experiment transformed a modern college and modern college students into “prisoners” or “guards” in a mock prison. The two week experiment was quickly shortened to a mere six days. The study found that when you put people into an environment as such they can quickly take on these newly assigned

Zimbardo along with Craig Haney, and Curtis Banks placed an advertisement asking for male volunteers. There were twenty four subjects that participated in the experiment that were selected from a pool of seventy five respondents. (Zimbardo, Haney, Banks 1973.) Each of the respondents were asked to complete a very extensive questionnaire including family background, physical and mental health history, and prior involvements in crime. According to the chronicle of higher education Philip Zimbardo stated “First we established that all 24 participants were physically and mentally healthy, with no history of crime or violence, so as to be sure that initially they were all ‘good apples.’ They were paid $15 a day to participate. Each of the student volunteers was randomly assigned to play the role of prisoner or guard in a setting designed to convey a sense of the psychology of imprisonment” (Zimbardo, 2007, pB6-B7.) The subjects were white, Caucasian males with the exception of one Oriental subject, who were all in the Stanford area during the summer. The subjects were also from a middle socioeconomic class and were initially strangers. Dr. Philip Zimbardo also played an active part in the experiment, he was the prison superintendent and his two research assistants Craig Haney and Curtis Banks were wardens. The researchers chose human subjects because this experiment would not work on

Three small cells (6 x 9 ft.) were constructed from laboratory rooms. A small closet (2 x 2 x 7 ft.) was used for the solitary confinement room and it was unlighted. After the twenty four respondents were chosen at random, half were assigned on a random basis the role of “prisoners” and the other half were assigned the role of “guard” for fifteen dollars a day. The “prisoner” subjects remained in the “prison” twenty four hours a day for the entire duration of the study. The “guards” worked eight hour shifts only staying in the prison during their work shift and then going on with their usual daily lives after. Guards were given no rules except that there was to be no physical punishment, and prisoners weren’t given any rules as to how they should behave. When the experiment started Palo Alto City Police unexpectedly “arrested” the subjects that were assigned prisoner at their homes. They were read their legal rights, handcuffed, and taken to the station in a police car. At the station they were fingerprinted and had an identification file prepared while they were held in a detention cell. Upon arrival at the “prison” each prisoner was stripped and sprayed with a deodorant spray and made to stand naked in the cell yard. Once all the prisoners arrived the warden greeted the prisoners and read the rules of the institution. Prisoners were