  the stanford prison experiment (spe) was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. the experiment was conducted at stanford university from august 14â20, 1971, by a team of researchers led by psychology professor philip zimbardo.the stanford prison experiment â a simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment conducted at stanford university it was funded by the us office of naval researchfaq on official site and was of interest to both the us navy and marine corps as an investigation into the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners. twenty-four male students out of seventy-five were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the stanford psychology building. the participants adapted to their roles well beyond zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse, and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. the experiment even affected zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. two of the prisoners quit the experiment early, and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. certain portions of the experiment were filmed, and excerpts of footage are publicly available. == goals and methods == zimbardo and his team aimed to test the hypothesis that the inherent personality traits of prisoners and guards are the chief cause of abusive behavior in prison. participants were recruited and told they would participate in a two-week prison simulation. out of 75 respondents, zimbardo and his team selected the 24 males whom they deemed to be the most psychologically stable and healthy.smith, j. r., & haslam, s. a. (eds.). (2012). social psychology: revisiting the classic studies. sage. these participants were predominantly middle-class.slideshow on official site the group was intentionally selected to exclude those with criminal background, psychological impairments or medical problems. they all agreed to participate in a 7â14-day period and received $15 per day (roughly equivalent to $85 in 2012). the experiment was conducted in the basement of jordan hall (stanford's psychology building). twelve of the twenty-four participants were assigned the role of prisoner (nine plus three alternates), while the other twelve were assigned the role of guar
1971_in_science 1971_in_the_United_States Academic_scandals Conformity Group_processes History_of_psychology Human_subject_research_in_the_United_States Imprisonment_and_detention Psychology_experiments Research_ethics Social_psychology Stanford_University