The Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

The Stanford Project

In 1971, a psychology professor named Philip Zimbardo created a truly evil experiment. It was called The Stanford Prison Experiment. The study took place in August of 1971. Zimbardo put an ad in the newspaper asking students to participate. The advertisement called for young men to take the position as guards or prisoners. More than 70 students applied for the experiment. They chose 24 men and paid them $15.00 a day. Their neighbors, friends, and family were told they were arrested for crimes such as armed robbery or theft. They were randomly assigned guard positions or prisoner positions. “In reality, the Stanford County Prison was a heavily manipulated environment, and the guards and prisoners acted in ways that were largely predetermined by how their roles were presented. To understand the meaning of the experiment, you have to understand that it wasn’t a blank slate; from the start, its goal was to evoke the experience of working and living in a brutal jail.” (Konnikova)

On the first day, all the prisoners were stripped naked and searched. The prisoners were only allowed to be called by their ID numbers; they no longer

They began removing their stocking caps, and ripped of their numbers. Then they moved their beds to go against the doors, so the guards could not get in. The guards then decided to get a fire extinguisher, so they could force the prisoners away from the doors. Once the guards got into their cell, the prisoners were brutally punished by beatings. As the experiment continued, the violence became increasingly worse. “Prisoner#8612 had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger. His thinking became disorganized and he appeared to be entering the early stages of a deep depression. Within the next few days three others also had to leave after showing signs of emotional disorder that could have had lasting