The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University, in which volunteers were placed in a simulated prison environment, with some assigned the role of guards and others as prisoners. What began as an attempt to understand how social roles influence behavior quickly evolved into one of psychology’s most famous stories.
For decades, the experiment was presented as evidence that ordinary people could behave in surprisingly harsh ways when placed in positions of power. More recently, however, historians, psychologists, and ethicists have revisited the study and raised serious questions about both its methods and its conclusions. As a result, the experiment’s legacy today is far more complex than the simple story that first made it famous.
