ARTICLE 4

The Stanford Prison Experiment: Revisited

"... was an incredibly flawed study that should have died an early death" quoted a 2019 journal - American Psychologist, about the Stanford Prison Experiment.

On the morning of August 17, 1971, nine young men were searched, handcuffed and led into the rear of a waiting police car. They were being arrested on account of Penal Code 211 and 459 (armed robbery and burglary). The police transported them to the Stanford County Prison, also known as, the Stanford Psychology Department.

These men were the participants of the 'Stanford Prison Experiment' and this act was a part of the experiment.

Stanford University's professor emeritus, Dr. Philip Zimbardo, along with his colleagues created this experiment to study how individuals could behave when given power and roles along with certain expectations.

In simple words, the researchers wanted to know how the participants (prisoners & guards) would react when placed in a simulated prison environment.

The above image was the advertisement published by the researchers.

70 undergraduate students volunteered to take part in the 1-2 week long experiment for a payment of $15 per day. In order to select the individuals, they were given a questionnaire to solve. It contained questions on their family backgrounds, physical and mental health histories, criminal records and social behavior. 24 volunteers were selected for the experiment because their questionnaire results determined them as "healthy" and "normal". Based on a coin flip, the participants were assigned the roles of prisoners and guards.

Prisoners

The simulated prison had three prison cells. Each cell had three prisoners.

Participants who were assigned with the role of a prisoner were stripped and clothed with a gown. Zimbardo called this gown as "dress". "Real male prisoners don't wear dresses," he explained, "but real male prisoners, do feel humiliated, do feel emasculated, and we thought we could produce the same effects very quickly".

Prisoners were required to stay in the mock prison for 24 hours a day.

Guards

All other rooms across the cell accommodated the guards and a warden.

The guards wore khaki uniforms and were given whistles, nightsticks, and mirrored sunglasses. Guards were assigned to work in three-man teams for eight-hour shifts. After each shift, guards were allowed to return to their homes until their next shift.

Prison Warden

Zimbardo himself took part in the experiment, playing the role of the prison warden.

Researchers were able to observe the behavior of the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras and microphones.

Result of the experiment

The warden overlooked these incidents until graduate student Christina Maslach questioned the morality of the experiment. None of his colleagues or Zimbardo himself introspected the impact on the prisoners the experiment had created. Therefore, the experiment was terminated.

Criticisms

The behavior of all involved was so extreme that the experiment, which was meant to last two weeks, was terminated after six days. Global scholars pointed at the causes of termination and criticized the experiment in the following way,

• While the prisoners and guards were allowed to interact in any way they wanted, the interactions were hostile
• The guards began to behave in ways that were aggressive and abusive toward the prisoners while the prisoners became passive and depressed
• The participants knew that an audience (experimenters) was watching and the sense of being watched encouraged them to perform
• Five of the prisoners began to experience severe negative emotions and had to be released from the study early
• The experiment violates today's ethical code of conduct laid by 'American Psychological Association'
• Selected participants were all white and belonged to middle-class - unrepresentative sample of participants, which meant that, the results was inapplicable to a wider population

Conclusion

Today, 51 years later, many look to the study to make sense of events like the behavior of the guards at Abu Ghraib. However, human values were suspended, morality was challenged and the most ugly and brutal side of them, normal men was disclosed during the experiment.

The lesson of Stanford isn’t that any random human being is capable of indulging into sadism and tyranny. It’s that certain institutions and environments demand those behaviors—and, perhaps, can change them.

Key Word

The Abu Ghraib incident: Abu Ghraib is a place in Iraq. Abu Ghraib Prison is situated in this place and is the location of the incident. The US army and the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) imposed several atrocities on the Iraqi prisoners and also killed a prisoner illegally. The prisoners were brutally tortured. Global human rights organizations heavily criticized the country.

Source

THE NEW YORKER

VERYWELL MIND

MIND FIELD

Written by: Amrutha Varshini