Question

In the Stanford prison simulation, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups, guards or prisoners. After a few days, the prisoners staged a failed revolt and were consequently punished and humiliated by the guards. How did the researchers explain the abusive behavior of the guards

Answer 1

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The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was an attempt to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power, focusing on the struggle between prisoners and Prison officers. It was conducted at Stanford University between August 14-20, 1971, by a research group led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo using college students.Guards and prisoners had been chosen randomly from the volunteering college students. Some participants developed their roles as the officers and enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, by the officers' request, actively harassed other prisoners who tried to stop it. Zimbardo, in his role as the superintendent, allowed abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners left mid-experiment, and the whole exercise was abandoned after six days following the objections of graduate student Christina Maslach, whom Zimbardo was dating (and later married). Certain portions of the experiment were filmed, and excerpts of footage are publicly available.