What is the Message of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

Despite criticism and controversy for being unethical and scientifically inaccurate, the Stanford Prison Experiment remains one of the most important pieces of psychology research. In fact, the study has given us an understanding of how complex interactions occur, which involve individual behavior, power dynamics, and social structures.

Message of the Stanford Prison Experiment

The flaws of the study were actually influenced by the expectations of the researchers themselves, who hoped that the results of this study would be in accordance with their goals. But in reality, this experiment has to be stopped and was not even completed at the appointed time.

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So, what is the aim of this experiment? What was found, and what were the results? And what are the main lessons that we could learn from this? Okay, we’ll answer those questions below!

The Aim of the Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a psychological-based case study that was conducted by Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo of Stanford University, California. This study lasted from August 15 to 21, 1971, in the basement of Jordan Hall.

Actually, the basis for carrying out this study was Dr. Zimbardo’s about the psychology of good people when they are in bad places, i.e., prison, and why the prison guards often carry out inhumane acts against prisoners.

Further, the study was to test whether the brutality of prison guards, especially in United States prisons, was purely dispositional or situational.

It is known that dispositional is a naturally inclined personality that everyone has. Meanwhile, situational is how an event occurs, which leads to an ongoing condition.

If we relate it to this research, the dispositional factor is the sadistic personality that prison guards naturally have, and the situational factor can mean the guard’s responsibility towards the prison environment.

The study is to determine the psychological impact of someone who is under certain authority and helpless in that environment. In practice, for example, in a prison environment, prisoners and prison guards may have negative personalities that can cause inevitable conflict between the two. It could be prisoners who lack respect for the law and prison guards who behave aggressively and inhumanely towards prisoners.

If this happens, the two parties, who should be at peace with each other, will most likely become hostile to each other because of the power structure of the social environment in prison.

How Was the Stanford Prison Experiment Was Conducted

This psychological experiment was supposed to be carried out for two weeks, but Dr. Zimbardo was forced to stop it due to the situation getting out of hand. Ultimately, this study only lasted 6 days.

This research involved at least 24 undergraduate students who were mentally and physically healthy. They were divided into three positions, including 9 people as prisoners, 9 people as prison guards, and the rest as substitute positions.

Dr. Zimbardo then assigned them randomly. Those who were considered prisoners were finally arrested for violating Criminal Code 211 and 459 in the Palo Alto area on the morning of August 17, 1971.

The participants were handcuffed, searched, and taken to the police station to have their fingerprints taken. Then, they were moved to a holding cell and blindfolded. Soon after, they were taken to the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department building, which had been transformed into the makeshift Stanford County Jail.

Upon arrival at the prison, they were shaved, and those who were prison guards carried out delousing, an act that dehumanized the prisoners.

Due to anonymity, they are given numbers and uniforms. Since the guards were not given any formal training beforehand, they had to make their own rules regarding how they could administer and supervise the prisoners.

What the Stanford Prison Experiment Found

After the prisoners were locked up and the prison guards prepared to carry out their duties, activities in the prison began to take place. Day after day, a series of surprising events occurred until the peak of the sixth day.

On the first day, conditions seemed normal; nothing happened. On the second day, a rebellion broke out, resulting in prison guards spraying fire extinguishers at the prisoners to get them further into the cells.

This condition got worse when the guards tried to take the prisoner’s bed. They also started using psychological tactics on prisoners; they even locked them in solitary confinement.

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It didn’t take a week; this “prison” life quickly became a real and threatening situation for everyone in it.

At its peak on the sixth day, all participants were dissolved and immersed in their roles. Guards became increasingly cruel and sexually assaulted inmates, forcing them to jump over each other’s half-naked bodies.

Additionally, the guards deprived the prisoners of their privileges, including food, beds, etc., and forced the prisoners to insult each other. Of course, this action resulted in several inmates being released, including #8612 being released due to emotional distress and #819 being released after becoming hysterical.

This study was finally stopped on day 6 because the emotional and mental conditions of the prisoners continued to worsen. Dr. Zimbardo found that some participants were immersed in the experiment and felt like it was real to them.

After the evaluation was carried out, a participant who played the role of a prison guard was shocked after realizing that he asked the inmates to clean the toilet with their bare hands. Meanwhile, some participants who played prisoners did not believe that they had been intimidated and submitted to the authorities fearfully.

Dr. Zimbardo invited a Catholic priest, Christina Maslach, Ph.D., to give her opinion regarding how realistic the prison situation in this study was. Of course, the chaplain interviews each prisoner by saying a number rather than a name.

Pastor Maslach was shocked and angry at seeing prisoners being abused, and according to him, this study was no longer about role-playing but more about the limits of reality.

During the evaluation, there were three stereotypes that described prison guards, including:

    • There are guards who are fair and kind and never even punish prisoners.
    • There are guards who are good, but they don’t help the prisoners.
    • There were guards who were cruel and often brutally intimidated and humiliated prisoners.

Result of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Even though it was considered a failure, the Stanford Prison Experiment still provided a number of findings that surprised many people. But a few points are:

    • Prisoners will obey authority rules and will also rebel at the same time if they are intimidated and mistreated by guards.
    • People with good behavior may commit bad actions if they are given authority and responsibility, as in the case of prison guards.
    • People who have good behavior are given authority and can adapt to the roles they occupy; they basically act in the same way as they usually do in normal life.

These results are supported by several things that happened during the research, such as:

    • Inmates and prison guards find the simulation of prison life to be very realistic.
    • Prisoners experience uncontrollable emotions that disturb them so much that they do not realize that this is not real.
    • The prison guards also don’t realize that this is just a simulation, where they are shocked by what they do to the prisoners. According to them, violence and aggression are not their true personalities. Otherwise, they only do what is within their responsibility and authority.

In short, prison is a sensitive environment where bad things often happen. This is because it is influenced by the social role of individuals under certain responsibilities and authorities.

The Stanford Prison Experiment finally revealed that violence in the prison environment can occur due to “situational factors” rather than “dispositional factors”.

To note: Situational factors are what force prisoners to behave aggressively. And one of the one of the dispositional factors is the sadistic personality that a prison guard has.

The Message of the Stanford Prison Experiment

The point is that the Stanford Prison Experiment taught us that power dynamics and social roles have a profound impact on human behavior. That means someone can easily perform both good and bad actions due to environmental influences and the expectations given to them.

In addition, the study also provides the fact that there are potential dangers in research that harm participants, as well as ethical concerns about fraud in psychological research.

Criticism of the Stanford Prison Experiment

There is no doubt that the Stanford Prison Experiment received harsh criticism from various entities. So far, this is one of the most controversial psychological studies ever.

These criticisms relate to its methodology and lack of full participant consent. Sure, it can be considered a violation of ethics in research.

Reportedly, the participants didn’t agree to be arrested at their residence. However, this would actually give a negative impression of them because not everyone knew that this was just a simulation. Plus, the participants were not notified before. After being arrested, they were only given a few minutes to decide whether to participate.

On the other side, the researcher wanted the situation to become more real so the study could run perfectly.

In fact, the emotional stress of the participants who became prisoners could not be predicted from the start; even the researchers couldn’t. What’s worse, prisoners are not protected from psychological danger, so they experience significant psychological impacts as a result of incidents of humiliation and pressure in the simulated prison.

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