Stanford Prison Experiment

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Stanford Prison Experiment
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Background

• Landmark psychological study of the human
  response to captivity.
• Conducted in 1971
• Led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University.
• Volunteers played the roles of the guards and
  prisoners.

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• Funded by the U.S Navy to explain conflicts in
  its and the Marine Corps prison systems

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Hypothesis

• Prison guards and convicts were self selecting
  that would naturally lead to poor conditions in
  that situation.

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Participants

• Recruited via a newspaper ad
• Offered 15 a day
• Participate in a mock prison simulation for 2
  weeks
• 24 were chosen based on a series of tests that
  proved they were the most psychologically stable
  and healthy.
• White, middle class, young males.

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Roles

• Divided in half into equal groups of prisoners
  and guards.
• Coin toss

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Prison

• Mock jail
• Basement of Stanford Psych. Dept
• Research Assistant was the Warden
• Zimbardo was the Superintendent

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Goals

• Depersonalization
• Deindividualization
• Disorientation

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Guards

• Wooden Batons, military style uniforms and
  mirrored sunglasses.
• Work in shifts and return home during off hours.
• Given no formal guidelines except that they were
  not allowed to touch the prisoners.

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Prisoners

• ill fitting smocks (no underwear)
• Sandals
• Assigned s no names
• Nylon pantyhose caps
• Small chain around ankles

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The Beginning

• Participants were charged with armed robbery by
  real police officers.
• Fingerprinting, mug shots, strip searched and
  deloused.

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Results

• Prisoners suffered sadistic and humiliating
  treatment.
• Developed severe emotional disturbances (crying
  and disorganized thinking).
• Riots
• Strenuous punishments were imposed. (i.e.
  push-ups)
• Prison became unsanitary and bathroom rights
  became privileges.

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Results (cont)

• Clean toilets with bare hands.
• Sleep on concrete floor naked.
• Denied food.
• Guards became more and more sadistic.

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The End

• After only 6 days the experiment was shut down!!

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Conclusions

• Argued to demonstrate obedience of people and
  power of authority.
• Situation caused the behavior not inherent
  personalities.
• Compared to Miligram experiment.

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Criticisms

• Unethical
• Results cannot be reproduced or replicated
• Zimbardo was not a neutral observer
• Not like an actual prison
• Sample size was too small
• People who were drawn to the ad in the newspaper,
  may be predisposition for violent behavior.

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Questions

• Was it right to trade suffering experienced by
  the participants for the knowledge gained by the
  research? Why or why not?
• If you were an experimenter in charge, would you
  have done this study? How could you have made
  the study more ethical?