In 1971, a team of psychologists designed and implemented an experiment that used a mock prison setting, with college students role-playing prisoners and guards to test the power of social situations to determine behavior. The research, is known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. It was set up to study the psychological effects of prison life. This study was planned to last two weeks, yet had to be terminated by the sixth day.
Zimbardo the main psychologist/researcher in this experiment advertised for volunteers to participate. Applicants and were given diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse. The study involved 24 male college students (chosen from 75 volunteers) who were paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to their role. The prison simulation was kept as real as possible. There were 12 prisoners and 12 guards.
As with real prisoners, the prisoners were to expect some harassment, to have their privacy and some of their other civil rights violated. This was all part of their informed consent agreement when they volunteered. Guards were instructed to do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison and to
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As the main researcher in this experiment, I don’t think Zimbardo should have acted in the experiment. Both guards and prisoners adapted to their roles quickly. By the second day a rebellion broke out. As the prisoners became more submissive, the guards became more aggressive and assertive. The guards escalated in their level of harassment, increasing the humiliation they made the prisoners suffer, forcing them to do repetitive work such as cleaning out toilet bowls with their bare hands. The guards had prisoners do push-ups, jumping jacks, whatever else they could think