Prisoners And Guards In A Simulated Prison Summary

A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison by Stanford University is based on a research that seeks to investigate the psychological effects of the domineering power exhibited by guards on prisoners in a mock cell. The author, Dr. Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford hypothesized that inherent personality traits are the underlying cause of abusive behavior experienced in prisons.

The participants of the study were twenty-two males who were randomly divided into equal halves of guards and prisoners. The guards were tasked with maintaining order within the prison and clothe in uniform to maintain a sense of superiority and preeminence on the prisoners. Meanwhile, the prisoners were given prison numbers as their name and stripped of their Christian name. They were clothed in a way so as to undermine their masculinity and an ankle chain was chained onto one of their foot, serving as a sign of their freedom being undermined in the despotism of the prison environment. The results of the experiment were conducted through observations done by the psychologists and observers behind an observation screen and video recordings

Though the guards’ and prisoners knew that the experiment was a ‘mock’, they all eventually adapted to their surroundings and assumed their roles as if it was the ‘real thing’. The guards became drunk in power and administer supremacy and control over the prisoners to the extent that they were discombobulated at the thought of the experiment expiring. Meanwhile, the prisoners rebelled against the guards at first but eventually gave into the guard's commands. What was noticeable in the experiment was that the guards did not share their personal confabulation with that of their colleagues. Quite interestingly enough, the same also occurred with the prisoners as they too were confined to their own cells and only spoke of what was transpiring in the prison