The Stanford Prison Experiment By Craig Haney, Curtis Banks And Philip Zimbardo

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Craig Haney, Curtis Banks and Philip Zimbardo in an attempt to simulate and study just what happens, psychologically, to both prisoners and prison guards in a prison environment. Unlike many experiments, these researchers didn’t start out with a fully-formed hypothesis. They simply started with the premise that the students’ behavior would somehow be affected by the role they were given.

22 students were ultimately chosen from a pool of applicants, carefully screened to ensure there were no mental health issues, and from similar socioeconomic backgrounds. They were randomly separated into Prisoner and Guard groups and on a chosen day the prisoner students were ‘arrested’ by local authorities and put through the booking process, ending with placement in the jail setting. The prisoners and guards were given uniforms according to their role, with the prisoners being assigned numbers and instructed they were to refer to themselves and each other as their numbers, no names. The prisoners were in the environment full-time while the guards had 8 hour rotations, day and night.

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Psychological issues began appearing almost immediately, not only for the prisoners but their designated guards. Prisoners began developing anxiety and stress, while guards became cruel, finding more and more ways to torment those they’re meant to be guarding. The experiment was cut short, lasting only six days instead of the scheduled 14, due to how much stress the prisoners were under. In a surprising note, while the prisoners were excited to be released, the guards did not want the experiment to conclude, having enjoyed their positions of power and wanting them to continue the full scheduled length of the