The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. The experiment was conducted by a team of researchers led by Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. It was funded by a grant from both the US Navy and Marine Corps to determine the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners.

Twenty-four students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Roles were assigned randomly. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond what even Zimbardo himself expected, leading the “Officers” to display authoritarian measures and ultimately to subject some of the prisoners to torture. In turn, many of the prisoners developed passive attitudes and accepted physical abuse, and, at the request of the guards, readily inflicted punishment on other prisoners who attempted to stop it. The entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days, and the experimental process and the results remain controversial.

The results of the experiment are said to support situational attribution of behavior rather than dispositional attribution. In other words, it seemed the situation caused the participants’ behavior, rather than anything inherent in their personalities.