Psychology: The Stanford Prison Experiment - BBC Documentary

Summary

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a landmark study in understanding the psychological impact of perceived power and the capacity for evil within ordinary individuals. Conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University, the experiment transformed a university basement into a mock prison to explore how situational dynamics influence behavior. Despite its controversial nature, the study revealed disturbing insights about authority, power dynamics, and human nature. Zimbardo’s role as both the experimenter and prison superintendent blurred ethical boundaries, culminating in significant emotional and psychological distress for participants. The study raised pressing questions about the ethical framework of psychological experiments, reshaping future guidelines and sparking widespread debate about human behavior under power and authority.

Highlights

• The Stanford Prison Experiment placed participants in roles of guards and prisoners, revealing the powerful influence of perceived social roles. 🚔
• From mild-mannered individuals to authoritarian figures, guards exhibited drastic personality changes under the guise of power. 🚧
• The experiment's halted due to the extreme emotional distress experienced by participants, highlighting ethical oversight failures. ❌
• Philip Zimbardo's dual role in the study compromised objectivity, raising ethical concerns. 🔄
• It drew parallels with historical events, showing how societal pressures can lead to authoritarianism. 📚

Key Takeaways

• The study showcased how normal individuals can exhibit authoritarian behaviors when placed in power. ⚔️
• Participants quickly adapted to their roles, impacting their real-world identities and actions. 🧠
• The experiment highlighted significant ethical issues in psychological research. ⚖️
• Situational pressures can overpower personal morals, blurring the line between role-play and reality. 🔍
• The findings catalyzed changes in ethical guidelines for future studies to prevent harm. 📜

Overview

The Stanford Prison Experiment is infamous for transforming college students into authoritarian figures and submissive prisoners within days. Conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, the experiment sought to explore the psychological effects of perceived power. Participants were randomly assigned roles as guards or prisoners in a simulated prison environment, and the results were both shocking and enlightening.

From the onset, guards adopted their roles with concerning vigour, inflicting psychological torment on prisoners who, in turn, quickly internalized their roles as subservient individuals. Zimbardo himself was not immune to the blurring of reality and the constructed scenario, demonstrating how power dynamics can swiftly spiral out of control, even under controlled conditions.

The study was terminated prematurely due to ethical concerns and the well-being of participants. Its aftermath led to a deeper understanding of human psychology and the development of stricter ethical guidelines in research. The experiment remains a crucial example of the potential for abuse within power structures and the importance of maintaining ethical integrity in scientific experimentation.

Psychology: The Stanford Prison Experiment - BBC Documentary Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] I was the first one to be picked up so they put me in a Cell they locked me in there in this degrading little outfit hey I don't want anybody left violation the rules simulation I got to go to a doctor anything Jesus Christ I'm burning up ins
• 00:30 - 01:00 don't you know I've never screamed so loud in my life never been so upset in my life it was an experience of being out of control this [ __ ] take it Stanford University Northern California one of America's most prestigious academic institutions and in 1971 the scene of one of the most
• 01:00 - 01:30 notorious experiments in the history of [Music] psychology I was interested in what happens if you put good people in an evil [Music] Place does the situation outside of you the institution come to control your behavior or does the things inside of you your attitude your values your morality uh allow you to to rise above uh a negative
• 01:30 - 02:00 environment the negative environment zimbardo chose to test his ideas was a prison he would convert the basement of the University's psychology department into a Subterranean jail we put uh prison doors on each of three office cells in the cells there was nothing but three beds uh and and there was very actually very little room for anything else cuz they were very small and here we had solitary confinement which we called the Hole uh and in the hole was was the place where prisoners would be
• 02:00 - 02:30 put for punishment it was a very very small area when you closed the door it was totally [Music] dark all the guards wor military uniforms and we had them wear these silver reflecting sunglasses and what it does is you can't see someone's eyes and so that loses some of the the humanness the humanity in general we wanted to create a sense of power as the guards as a
• 02:30 - 03:00 category are people who have power over others in this case power over the prisoners a decade earlier psychologist Stanley Milgram had also looked at how we respond to Authority in order to understand how people were induced to obey unjust regimes and participate in atrocities such as the Holocaust he set up an experiment volunteers were told they were taking part in scientific research to improve prove memory you open those
• 03:00 - 03:30 and tell me which of you is with pleas teer separated by a screen the teacher would ask the learner questions in a word game and administer an electric shock when the answer was incorrect he was told to increase the voltage with each wrong answer Cloud horse Rock House answer wrong
• 03:30 - 04:00 unre 50 volts answer horse experiment that's all get me out of here get me out of here please continue please I refuse to go in let me out refuses to go in the experiment requires you continue teacher please continue participants didn't know that the learner was really an actor and the so-called shocks harmless you're going to get a shot 180 volts [Music] [Applause]
• 04:00 - 04:30 I can't stand the pain let me out of here stand I'm not going to kill that man there I mean who's going to take the responsibility for anything happens to that gentlemen I'm responsible for anything that happens here continue please all right next one slow walk dance truck music two3 of volunteers were prepared to administer a potentially fatal electric shock when encouraged to do so by what they perceived as a legitimate authority figure in this case a man in a white
• 04:30 - 05:00 coat 375 Vol I think something's happened to I fallowing that I don't get no answer he was hollering a less vage can't you check in and see if he's all right place milgram's findings horrified America they showed that decent American citizens were as capable of committing acts against their conscience as the Germans had been under the Nazis like mgrm zimbardo was interested in the power of social situations to overwhelm individuals
• 05:00 - 05:30 his experiment would test people's responses to an oppressive regime would they accept it or act against it Zim's experiment was conducted against a backdrop of civil rights activism and protest against the Vietnam War there was a sense of student power student dominance and student Rebellion against against Authority in general it was from the student body that zimbardo selected his participants after passing tests to
• 05:30 - 06:00 screen out anyone with a psychological abnormality they were paid $15 a day each was randomly assigned to the role of God or prisoner it was a prison to me it still is a prison to me I don't look on it as an experiment or a simulation was just a a prison that was run by psychologists instead of run by the state I was 20 and that September I was going to college and it would be nice to have a summer job but there sure wasn't
• 06:00 - 06:30 a lot of time left and I looked in the W ads and I found this thing which was just going to fit it was just two weeks once you put a uniform on and are given a job to keep these people in line you really become that person what you put on that khaki uniform you put on the glasses you put on you take the night stick I was on summer break from my first year in college and uh I was looking for a job had to choose between that and making pizzas that sounded like a lot more fun
• 06:30 - 07:00 as well as running the experiment zimbardo took on the role of prison superintendent he began by briefing the guards I said you have to maintain Law and Order if prison is escaped the study is over and you can't use physical violence you can create a sense of fear in them you can create notion that their life is totally controlled by us and that be constant surveillance we have total power in the situation and they have none
• 07:00 - 07:30 prisoners were brought to the basement prison blindfolded to confuse them about their whereabouts they were stripped and deloused of course the guards started making fun of their genitals and humiliating them and really it's a start of what's known as a degradation process which not only prisons but lots of military type outfits Ed that process when I first got here even though like I had to strip I they would call me names I still didn't feel at all
• 07:30 - 08:00 like I was in the prison I was just looking at it as a job I recall sort of walking up and down the very short hallway which was the prison Hall and looking in on the prisoners and they're basically lounging around on their beds I felt it was like the day in summer camp the first day I said this might be a very long very boring experiment uh because it's conceivable nothing will [Music] happen I arrived independently at the
• 08:00 - 08:30 conclusion that this experiment must have been put together to prove a point about prisons being a Cru and inhumane place and therefore I would do my part you know to to help those results come about I was a confrontational and arrogant 18-year-old at the time and uh you know I said somebody ought to stir things up a bit here [ __ ] this experiment and [ __ ] Dr zimo [ __ ]
• 08:30 - 09:00 on the second morning the prisoners had decided to stir things up as well the guards found some of them had used their beds to barricade their cell prisoner 8612 was one of the Ring leaders of the Rebellion simulation it's a [ __ ] simulated experiment no prison they take your bed in your clothes in prison initially I was stunned I didn't expect the Rebellion because not much happened and it wasn't clear what they were what they were rebelling against
• 09:00 - 09:30 but they were rebelling against the status rebelling against being anonymous against um having to follow orders from from these these other students as punishment for the Rebellion prisoner 8612 was put in the hole and the guards turned on the other prisoners the guards felt that they now have to up the ante of being tough the prisoners made the mistake of beginning to use profanity against the guards in a very personalized way so not against the
• 09:30 - 10:00 guards but you know you little punk you you big [ __ ] and so and the guards got Furious well gentlemen here it is time for count prisoners were repeatedly woken in the middle of the night the guards made them do menial physical tasks and clean out toilets with their bare hands we made it a a point to not give them any sense of of comfort or what to expect that you know that anything could happen to them at any time time including being red from their
• 10:00 - 10:30 sleep at any hour and forced to stand up in a line and have me hurl insults at them and make them do exercises when you interrupt people's sleep they tend to become a little disoriented and since there was no daylight in the prison they had no idea whether it was night or day I think that I was the instigator of this uh whole schedule of harassment the harassment of the guards took its
• 10:30 - 11:00 toll on Rebellion leader 8612 he told zimbardo he wanted to leave the experiment zimad responded not as a psychologist but as a prison superintendent I said well I can see to it the guards don't hassle you personally uh and in return all I would like is some information from time to time about what the prisoners are doing so essentially I'm saying I'd like you to be a snitch an Informer and I said think it over and if you still want to leave fine
• 11:00 - 11:30 confused prisoner 8612 returned to his cell and told the other prisoners that no one could leave let me out [Music] out he believed that we wouldn't let him go although we've never said that but the fact that he was the ring leader of the rebellion and he told the other prisoners they won't let you leave that really transformed the experiment into a prison I was told that I couldn't quit and at that point I just felt totally
• 11:30 - 12:00 hopeless more hopeless than I'd ever felt before soon after returning to his cell prisoner 8612 started showing signs of severe distress God damn it [ __ ] up you don't know you don't know I mean God I mean Jesus Christ I'm burning up inside don't you know I didn't [ __ ] can't take it he came up with a plan that if he acted crazy we would have to release
• 12:00 - 12:30 him I feel so [ __ ] up inside I feel really [ __ ] up inside you don't know I got to go I to a doctor anything I can't say that I'm [ __ ] up I don't know how to explain I'm all [ __ ] up inside oh I no it starts with make believe and then he's doing it and cursing and screaming and you know whatever that little boundary is that he he he moved across not that he became really crazy but uh he became you know excessively Disturbed I mean it's so much so that we
• 12:30 - 13:00 immediately said we have to release him as an experience it it was unique I've never screamed so loud in my life um I've never been so upset in my life and it was an experience of being out of control the boundary between reality and make believe was to become blurred even for zimbardo a rumor circulated that released prisoner 8612 would return with friends to liberate the remaining prisoners I quickly convinced myself that you know
• 13:00 - 13:30 my most important function was you know not to allow this prison Liberation to occur and what can I do to keep my prison going not the experiment going the prison was dismantled and the prisoners moved to another part of the building Zim waited in the empty Corridor preparing to tell 8612 and his friends that the study was over when a colleague appeared and began asking questions about the scientific basis of the research I'm trying to get rid of
• 13:30 - 14:00 him then he says what's the independent variable I get furious because he doesn't understand that there's a riot about to take place that this prison is about to erupt had totally lost this whole other identity of scientists researchers psychologists the rumor jailbreak never materialized the guards had dismantled the prison for nothing and had to rebuild it they took their frustration out on the
• 14:00 - 14:30 prisoners they escalated again the level of control the level of dominance the level of humiliating Behavior 819 was the next prisoner to rebel against the harassment of the guards he barricaded himself in his cell and refused to take part in the count you're not only not getting a cigarette but for as long as the cell's blocked you're going to be in solitary when you get out AAP for 819 Disobedience the
• 14:30 - 15:00 guards made his cellmates do mindless work this undermined any vestage of solidarity amongst the prisoners who now chose to accept the tyranny of the guards rather than risk further harassment that was one of the surprising things to me is that there was so little uh that the prisoners did to support one another after we started our campaign of you know divide and conquer isolated and distraught prisoner 819 tolds zimo he wanted to leave while
• 15:00 - 15:30 I'm interviewing 819 uh and saying okay you know it's all over thank you for your participation you know I'll give you money for the whole for the whole two weeks uh even though you're leaving early he hears the prisoners shouting 819 did a bad thing 819 did a bad thingis 819 did a bad thing 819 and he said I can't leave and he's crying and he says I can't leave said what do you mean you can't leave he said no I have to go back cuz I
• 15:30 - 16:00 don't want them to think you that I'm a bad prisoner and that's that's when I really flipped out that in such a such a short time you know a college student's thinking could become so distorted I said you're not a bad prison you're not a prisoner and this is not a prison and it was this thing where he opened his eyes it was just really like a cloud being lifted seeing things clearly prisoner 819 reverted to his original request and was released to replace him the
• 16:00 - 16:30 experimenters called in one of their reserves from the standby list I got a phone call saying are you still available as an alternate U kind of cheery female secretary voice I said yes sure and so she said could you start this afternoon and I said yes sure and my role in The Experiment really [Music] began I was blindfolded and then stripped and supposedly
• 16:30 - 17:00 deloused he came into a mad house full-blown all of us had gradually acclimated to the increasing level of aggression the increasing powerlessness of the prisoners increasing dominance of the guards and he comes in and says what's happening here to the other prison they said hey you better not make trouble it's really terrible it's a real prison uh and uh and he says you know I'm out of here I I I don't want and they said
• 17:00 - 17:30 no they're not you can't leave once you're here you're stuck this is a real prison 46 since you got your hands in the air why don't you play Frankenstein 209 you be the Bride of Frankenstein you stand here prisoner 416 was soon subjected to the harassment of Dave asman nicknamed John Wayne because of his Macho attitude 416 and I want you to walk over here like Frankenstein and say that you love 2093 I made the decision that I would be as intimidating as cold as cruel as
• 17:30 - 18:00 possible I love you get CL get up close I love you night I love you night you smile you get down hand 10 pushup two I just watched a movie called Cool Hand Luke and uh the mean intimidating uh you know Southern prison Warden character in that film really was my inspiration for the role that I created for myself why did you try to be
• 18:00 - 18:30 obedient so much it it's my nature to be obedient you li he was speak L he was creative in his evil he would think of very ingenious ways to degrade to demean um the prisoners what if I told you to get down in that FL and [ __ ] the F what would you do then one of the best guards were was also on that shift and uh instead of confronting this bad
• 18:30 - 19:00 guard the sadistic guard essentially because he didn't want to see what was happening he became the Gopher he would go out to get the food and and things of this kind and that left the John Wayne guard and another guard on that shift to be dominant we were continually called upon to act in a way that just is contrary to what I really feel inside just continually giving out [ __ ] it's just really one of the most oppressive things you can do never ref 46 while
• 19:00 - 19:30 they do push-ups you sing amazing gra ready down push on your own The Madness of the experiment started to affect prisoner 416 keep going I began to feel that I was losing my identity until finally I I wasn't played I was 416 I was really my
• 19:30 - 20:00 number and 416 was going to have to decide what to do prisoner 416 decided to go on a hunger strike they were pushing my limits but here was a thing that I could do that could push their limits after I had missed a couple of meals I saw that this was not a matter of indifference to the guards I was making Headway they were
• 20:00 - 20:30 upset I thought how dare this newcomer come in and and try to change everything that we had worked for the first 3 days to set up and uh by God he's going to suffer for that get in that CL then frustrated by his continued Defiance John Wayne threw prisoner 416 into the hole after punishing the other prisoners for his Disobedience John Wayne encouraged them to vent their anger at 416 directly thank you
• 20:30 - 21:00 416 okay 209 myself thank you 416 we would use our night sticks to bang on the door and we would kick the door so hard that you know it must have you know shaken him very seriously inside scared the life out of him he yelled at me and threatened me and actually sort of smashed a sausage into my face to try to get me to open up but I didn't have any intention of
• 21:00 - 21:30 eating until I was out okay 416 should have been at some level of hero because he's willing to oppose the authority of the system in fact the prisoners accept the guard's definition of him as a troublemaker I remember some of them saying you know would you eat godamn it you know we're sick and tired of this and uh you know that was proof that you know there was no solidarity there was no support between the prisoners while 416 was still in the
• 21:30 - 22:00 hole John Wayne made a final attempt to break him by giving his fellow prisoners a choice they could vote to release him by making a small sacrifice you can give me the blankets and sleep on the bare mattress or you can keep your blankets and 416 will stay in another day now what would it be talking my blank what will it be over here
• 22:00 - 22:30 my how about 5486 I'll give you my blanket off you don't want his blanket we got three in favor keeping the blanket we got three guess one keep your blankets 416 you're going to be in there for a while so just get used to it the study showed that power corrupts and how difficult it is for people who are the victims of abuse to stand up and defend themselves why doesn't anybody who is being abused by a spouse or something
• 22:30 - 23:00 like that just say stop it um and we realize now that that's not as easy as it sounds by the end of the fifth day four prisoners had broken down and been released 416 was on the second day of his hunger strike and the experiment still had another 9 days to run at this point a fellow psychologist visited Zim's basement prison and would witness the brutality of the experiment
• 23:00 - 23:30 firsthand the guards had lined up the prisoners to go to the toilet had bags over their head chains on their feet and were marching by and I looked up and I saw this this circus this parade and I said hey Chris you know look at that I looked up and I just began to feel sick to my stomach I had this just chilling sickening feeling of watching this and I just you know I just turned away and I just let loose in this emotional tying I just lost it I was
• 23:30 - 24:00 angry scared I I was in tears and I'm furious I'm saying you're supposed to and then we had a big argument you're supposed to be a psychologist this is this interesting Dynamic behavior and such a few day I'm going through this whole thing the power of the situation says no no it's that young boys are suffering and you are responsible you're letting it happen I said oh my god of course you're right the next day zimbardo ended the experiment
• 24:00 - 24:30 studies like his stimulated heated debate about the ethics of using human subjects clearly young men suffered verbally physically prisoners felt shame in their role guards felt guilt so in that sense it's it's unethical that is nobody has the right the power the privilege to do that to other people in the wake of experiments like zimad and mgrs ethical guidelines changed introducing greater safeguards to protect
• 24:30 - 25:00 participants in the Stanford experiment zimbardo might have spared his volunteers distress had he not taken on a dual role in the study if I was going to be the prison superintendent I should have had a colleague who was overseeing the experiment uh who was in a position to stop it at any point or I should have been the Principal investigator and get somebody who was going to be the prison superintendent I realized that was a big mistake to play both those roles shifting back and
• 25:00 - 25:30 [Music] forth after the experiment zimb brought all the participants together to talk about their experiences John Wayne would now come face to face with the hunger Striker he had tormented I was a little worried I said oh my God he's really going to come down on me hard now uh now that we're on equal uh footing it harms me how did it harm you how does it harm you just to think about you mean that people can be like that yeah it let me in on some
• 25:30 - 26:00 knowledge that that I've never experienced firsthand uh because I know what you can turn into I know what you're willing to do when I look back on it now I behaved appallingly um you know I it's just a horid to look at I think I tried to explain to at the time that you know what you experienced and what you hated so much was was a role that I was playing that that's not me at all I love you to he was trying to dissociate himself from what he had done that did
• 26:00 - 26:30 make me angry everyone was acting out a part and playing a role prisoners guards staff everyone was acting out aart um it's when you start contributing to the script that's you and thus it's something you should take responsibility for uh I didn't see where it was really harmful it was degrading and that was that was part of my particular little experiment to see how I could uh your particular little experiment why don't
• 26:30 - 27:00 you tell me about that I was I was running little experiments of my own tell me about your little experiment I'm curious I wanted to to see just what kind of verbal abuse that people can take before they start objecting before they start flashing back if I have any regret right now it's that you know I made that decision because it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had um had I not decided to to for for things it could be that I only
• 27:00 - 27:30 accelerated them that the same things would have happened uh but we'll never know if the extreme nature of Dave echelman's Behavior tested the prisoners it also presented the other guards with a choice to intervene or not it surprised me that no one said anything to stop me they just accepted what I said and no one questioned my authority at all and it really shocked me why didn't people when I started to get abuse people so much I started to get so profane that and still people didn't say
• 27:30 - 28:00 anything there were a few guards who hated to see the prisoners suffer they never did anything which would be demeaning of the Prisoners the interesting thing is none of the good guards ever intervened in the behavior of the guards who gradually became more and more sadistic over time we like to think there is this core of human nature that good people can't do bad things and that uh good people will dominate over bad situations in fact one way to look at
• 28:00 - 28:30 the Stanford Prison stud is that we put good people in an evil place and we saw who won well the sad message is in this case the evil Place won over the good people that did show some very interesting and maybe some unpleasant things about human behavior it seems like you know every Century every decade that we go through uh you know we're suffering the same kind of atrocities and uh you need to understand why these things happen you
• 28:30 - 29:00 need to understand why people behave like [Music] this there's a similar experiment starting this Tuesday night on BBC 2 details coming up next [Music]