The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) - Lucifer Effect

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE), also known as the Lucifer Effect or the Lucifel Effect, is a psychological experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, in 1971. Among 70 applicants, 24 college students were selected to play the roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison located in the basement of Stanford's psychology building. The roles were assigned randomly. They adapted to their roles more than expected, with guards behaving tyrannically and even engaging in cruel behavior. Two prisoners became so angry initially that they quit midway, and the entire experiment abruptly ended just six days after it began. There is still controversy surrounding the progress and results of the experiment, and there is even debate about all the experiment scenes that were filmed. Thirty years later, interest in Zimbardo's experiment was revived when the Abu Ghraib prison abuse of Iraqi prisoners occurred.

 

 

Objective and Process

Zimbardo's team began the experiment to test the idea that the characteristics of prisoners and guards are key to understanding the difficulties of prison life. Paid participants were told they would live in the "prison" for two weeks and were promised $15 per day. From 70 applicants, Zimbardo selected 24 mentally stable, physically and mentally healthy, male university students with no history of crime or drug abuse. All 24 were well-educated men from middle-class families in the United States or Canada.

 

The "prison" was located in the basement of Jordan Hall, the psychology department building at Stanford University. Student assistants played the role of prisoners, and Zimbardo acted as the prison superintendent. Zimbardo created a special situation to facilitate disorientation, depersonalization, and deindividuation in the participants. In the initial experiment, only 9 guards and 9 prisoners out of the selected 24 participated. The rest were on standby in case unforeseen circumstances arose, as the size of the prison constructed in the basement of Jordan Hall was too small to accommodate all 24 simultaneously. Guards were divided into three groups of three, working eight-hour shifts in three shifts a day, while prisoners were housed three per cell in three different cells. Participants assigned to be guards received fake guard uniforms consisting of khaki-colored shirts and pants and were given sunglasses to avoid eye contact.

 

The prisoners wore uncomfortable oversized smocks and stockings over their heads to make them feel constantly uncomfortable. Guards referred to the prisoners by their assigned numbers on their uniforms instead of their names.

The participants assigned to be guards held a meeting the day before the experiment to discuss that they were not allowed to physically harm the prisoners. According to The Stanford Prison Study video released in 2003, Zimbardo said to the guards, "You can create boredom in prisoners and instill some fear. You can act arbitrarily, and that behavior, in turn, controls the fate of prisoners entirely through us and the system. You, me, and prisoners have no privacy... We erase their personalities in various ways, and usually, all this is due to helplessness. In this situation, we have complete control, and they have no power."

 

Participants assigned to be prisoners behaved like prisoners, arrested on suspicion of armed robbery at their homes. The Palo Alto Police Department assisted all prisoners in actions (fingerprinting, taking criminal identification photos, explaining Miranda principles, etc.) and helped Professor Zimbardo. They were transferred from prison to another fake prison where they were monitored in real-time.

 

 

Result

The experiment went out of control in the blink of an eye. Prisoners who received humiliating and abusive treatment from the guards were suffering, and their behaviors had been accepted. The ongoing stress eventually led to a rebellion due to suppression. Much emotional confusion occurred until the end of the experiment.

 

There was a rebellion on the second day without any incidents. The guards were more serious about their role than usual and subdued the prisoners with a fire extinguisher without the permission of the staff.