Stanford Prison Research Articles

Sacrifices on the Altar of Science: The Case of Model Organisms

This research traces and examines specific examples of the application of model organisms during the experimentation of biomedical sciences and psychology. The main purpose of the study is to compare how scientists utilize animal models for experiments with specific cases of humans who were used as test subjects, focusing on methodologies and main motivations. A core question that motivated this work is: Can we use the term ‘‘model organisms’’ to refer to human beings? In other words, can human beings be considered analogue models, specifically model organisms? This study will try to respond to the above question, by drawing upon theoretical frameworks and definitions from the field of philosophy of science, particularly focusing on the concepts of the analogue model, model organisms, and animal model. It will also analyze specific examples of experimental utilization of animal models, such as Hippocratic physicians’ experiments involving goat brains, Galen's experiments on a pig during the Greco-Roman period, and the utilization of guinea pigs in modern scientific research. Finally, the study will examine historical examples where humans were used as test subjects including the Nazi medical experiments during World War II and the Stanford prison experiment conducted by psychology professor Philip G. Zimbardo.

Thinking Does Not Make It So

Thinking Does Not Make It So

Wyjaśnić zło. Filozoficzna interpretacja eksperymentu więziennego Philipa Zimbardo

The main problem of this paper is the issue of the evil and attempts at explaining this phenomenon. It is an analysis and reinterpretation of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. The leading argumentation is composed of Hannah Arendt's thesis of the banality of evil and philosophy of Immanuel Kant and Paul Ricoeur. Facing the radical experiment's conclusions, questions about human free will, motives and responsibility was raised. Therefore, the main thesis of this paper is an objection against the radical postulate of social psychologists about a profound influence a situation has on our moral decisions. The conclusion leads us to assumption of the incomprehensible character of evil and a strong need to expand our ability of self-reliant thinking allowing us to make a morally right choices and to counteract evil.

Don't Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor

Reviewed by: Don't Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor Alaine Martaus Taylor, Jordyn Don't Breathe a Word. HarperTeen, 2021 [352 p] Trade ed. ISBN 9780063038882 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063038905 $9.99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 8-12 In spring 1962, as the Cold War breeds fears of nuclear annihilation, six students at prestigious Hardwick Prep, including sixteen-year-old Connie, are chosen to test the school's new bomb shelter; something goes horribly wrong, and only five come out alive. In the current day, lonely new junior Eva is about to get drawn into that tragic event's dark legacy. Desperate for friends, Eva is thrilled to learn she's been tagged to join the Fives, an elite secret society of the school's best and brightest. Hooked by the sense of belonging, Eva is initially happy to ignore signs that the group is less social networking, more student surveillance. Soon her misgivings and a friendship with fellow outsider Erik lead her to investigate the Fives' history and its ties to that horrific day sixty years ago. As twisted secrets are revealed, Eva must decide whether to stay loyal or reveal the truth. Unfolding alongside Connie's narration of what really happened in the fallout shelter, itself a nailbiter subplot that's part Milgram test, part Stanford prison experiment, Eva's story is a psychological thriller that's both gripping and thought provoking. Chapters alternate between Connie and Eva, drawing attention to a web of power and secrets whose strands reach from the past to entangle each new generation of students, while the perfectly paced reveals build pressure to a single moment of breathtaking violence and satisfying, if imperfect, final showdown. The girls' narrative voices, meanwhile, offer a compelling glimpse at how easy it is to fall in line, even against a gut feeling that something is wrong. Overall, it's a bingeworthy pageturner that will leave readers asking themselves "What would I have done?" [End Page 441] Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Revisitando el concepto de la banalidad del mal desde la perspectiva del liderazgo de identidad

El concepto de la banalidad del mal ha sido utilizado para explicar la maldad humana. Este concepto ha sido muy influyente en la psicología social y en el resto de las ciencias sociales. Los resultados obtenidos en los experimentos de Milgram sobre obediencia y en el experimento de la prisión de Stanford (EPS) han sido considerados como muestras de apoyo empírico al concepto de la banalidad del mal. Pero este concepto está recibiendo importantes críticas desde la historia y desde la propia psicología social. El reanálisis de los estudios de Milgram y del EPS no apoya las formulaciones teóricas clásicas formuladas por Milgram y Zimbardo. La variabilidad de los niveles de obediencia en los experimentos de Milgram y en el comportamiento mostrado por los guardias y prisioneros en el EPS requieren otro modelo teórico explicativo de tales resultados. Enmarcados dentro de la perspectiva de la identidad social, Haslam y Reicher proponen que el papel del liderazgo de identidad es un concepto clave para explicar los resultados obtenidos en estos estudios.

The dirty work of the Stanford Prison Experiment: Re-reading the dramaturgy of coercion

Almost 50 years on, the Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971 remains one of the most notorious and controversial psychology studies ever devised. It has often been treated as a cautionary tale about what can happen in prison situations if there is inadequate staff training or safeguarding, given the inherent power differentials between staff and inmates. But what exactly was the ‘situation’ in the simulated prison at Stanford University, and how exactly did the participants respond to it? This article provides a new analysis of the behaviour of the nine Stanford ‘guards’, which draws on unpublished archival records and original interviews with some of the participants. It adopts an interactionist approach, whereby the individual backgrounds and personalities of the participants are seen to inform their behaviour within the situation provided, as well as vice versa. A key suggestion to emerge from this analysis is that the conduct of the three guard shifts, within the experiment, differed significantly according the interaction of the men on each shift and their influence on each other. The article is framed by the concept of ‘dirty work’ and uses theoretical sources including Goffman and Festinger to explore the extent to which the adoption of a particular social role (in this case, that of prison guard) affects change in the behaviour and beliefs of individual role players. The argument seeks to show that some of the Stanford guards adopted strategies of ‘role distancing’ to insulate themselves from the coercive demands of their positions, while others found the guard role impacting troublingly on their senses of self.

Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment from the Perspective of the Social Model of Disability: A Teaching Experience

This article aims to revisit the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) from the perspective of disability studies. The SPE is an issue that inevitably comes to light while teaching Social Psychology and how it contributes to a different course titled Psychological, Social and Cultural Aspects of Disabilities. The SPE presents a pioneering piece of research within Social Psychology. Similarly, the social model has reformed the concept of disability. The SPE and further studies demonstrate the importance of social forces in shaping human behaviour; i.e. they explore how good people might turn evil in particular circumstances. The social model of disability emphasises the role of social oppression in creating disability. As these two courses contribute to each other, it is discussed that an appropriate level of analysis within the discipline of psychology has much to contribute to the inherently interdisciplinary field of disability studies and vice versa. Interdisciplinary curriculums might be a step towards inclusive higher education.

Identity leadership is manifested via integrative complexity: Comment on Haslam et al. (2019).

Haslam, Reicher, and Van Bavel (2019) convincingly argued that experimenters in the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) influenced prisoners via identity-based communication. However, Haslam et al. focused on direct mechanisms of identity communication. In our comment, we discuss a less direct-but potentially equally important-communication mechanism by which leaders in the SPE may have influenced followers: integrative complexity. This consideration of integrative complexity not only bolsters the basic point of Haslam et al.'s article also provides new avenues for understanding the mechanisms by which leader identity processes work in cases like the SPE. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Debate around leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment: Reply to Zimbardo and Haney (2020) and Chan et al. (2020).

Access to the Stanford University archive has revealed new material that makes it possible to debate the precise nature and causes of events in the Stanford Prison Experiment. What the authors see as important is that these materials show the experimenters engaged in processes of identity leadership, which encouraged guard cruelty by presenting it as necessary for the achievement of noble collective goals. However, the authors encourage students, teachers, and researchers to engage with this new material themselves to explore alternative perspectives on what actually occurred in the study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Continuing to acknowledge the power of dehumanizing environments: Comment on Haslam et al. (2019) and Le Texier (2019).

Decades after it was conducted, the Stanford Prison Experiment endures as a classic, dramatic demonstration of the potentially destructive psychological dynamics that can be created when one group of people is given nearly total power over a group of derogated others in a powerful, dehumanizing environment such as prison. The authors of the study value the intellectually engaged alternative perspectives that continue to be used to discuss its unsettling results but reject those that are ad hominem, misleading, inaccurate, and unscientific. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Reflections on Social Psychology while reading Hannah Arendt

Two recent articles in the American Psychologist (Vol 74, no. 7, 2019) on the Stanford Prison Experiment induced me to re-read Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition (1958), On Totalitarianism (1973). and Eichmann in Jerusalem (Arendt and Kroh, 1964). This re-reading and reflection deepened my understanding of the value and role of social psychology and Arendt’s deep understanding of human speech and action as it relates to the Human Sciences and understanding our role in the social and political world. The review includes an experiment by Arthur Asch on “Opinion and social pressure” published in 1955 and then looks at Stanley Milgram’s experiment on obedience published in 1963. The review of these articles provides a context for looking at Philip Zimbardo’s Sanford Prison Experiment (1973) and a critique of that experiment which led to my re-reading Hannah Arendt. This article continues an exploration of my efforts (Morehouse, 2012; Morehouse, 2015; Morehouse et al, 2019) at integrating some elements of psychology and philosophy with the goal of deepening understanding of contemporary issues.

Using new revelations about the Stanford prison experiment to address APA undergraduate psychology major learning outcomes.

Using new revelations about the Stanford prison experiment to address APA undergraduate psychology major learning outcomes.

Rethinking the nature of cruelty: The role of identity leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is one of the most famous studies in the history of psychology. For nearly a half century it has been understood to show that assigning people to a toxic role will, on its own, unlock the human capacity to treat others with cruelty. In contrast, principles of identity leadership argue that roles are unlikely to elicit cruelty unless leaders encourage potential perpetrators to identify with what is presented as a noble ingroup cause and to believe their actions are necessary for the advancement of that cause. Although identity leadership has been implicated in behavior ranging from electoral success to obedience to authority, researchers have hitherto had limited capacity to establish whether role conformity or identity leadership provides a better account of the cruelty observed in the SPE. Through examination of material in the SPE archive, we present comprehensive evidence that, rather than guards conforming to role of their own accord, experimenters directly encouraged them to adopt roles and act tough in a manner consistent with tenets of identity leadership. Implications for the analysis of conformity and cruelty as well as for interpretation of the SPE are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment.

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is one of psychology's most famous studies. It has been criticized on many grounds, and yet a majority of textbook authors have ignored these criticisms in their discussions of the SPE, thereby misleading both students and the general public about the study's questionable scientific validity. Data collected from a thorough investigation of the SPE archives and interviews with 15 of the participants in the experiment further question the study's scientific merit. These data are not only supportive of previous criticisms of the SPE, such as the presence of demand characteristics, but provide new criticisms of the SPE based on heretofore unknown information. These new criticisms include the biased and incomplete collection of data, the extent to which the SPE drew on a prison experiment devised and conducted by students in one of Zimbardo's classes 3 months earlier, the fact that the guards received precise instructions regarding the treatment of the prisoners, the fact that the guards were not told they were subjects, and the fact that participants were almost never completely immersed by the situation. Possible explanations of the inaccurate textbook portrayal and general misperception of the SPE's scientific validity over the past 5 decades, in spite of its flaws and shortcomings, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Revisiting the Stanford prison experiment, again: Examining demand characteristics in the guard orientation

ABSTRACTThe day before the Stanford prison experiment began, the investigators held an orientation session for the guards in which they communicated expectations for hostile guard behavior, a flippant prisoner mindset, and the possibility of ending the study prematurely. While the study’s principal investigator has minimized the influence of this orientation, critics have speculated that it provided a “script” for guard abuse. In the present studies, participants were presented with a hypothetical prison simulation study and randomly assigned as guards to an orientation session that included these expectations (Stanford orientation) or one providing basic study information. Across three studies, participants exposed to the Stanford orientation relative to a control orientation, reported greater expectations for hostile and oppressive behavior on the part of the study’s investigator and from others and themselves as guards. The present results provide empirical support for speculation that the language of the guard orientation in the Stanford prison experiment sanctioned abuse among guards.

"There's More to It Than Just a Box Check ": Measuring Prison Climate in Three Correctional Facilities.

The imperative to heed social environment and power of the situation, particularly as applied to prison settings, dates to the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment; the widely cited study concluded that situational factors, not personality, created the damaging conditions observed. Despite critical need for research on prison climate, measurement has met stiff challenges, and little research on prison culture exists in the United States. This study applies a 17-item scale, primarily based on Essen Climate Evaluation Schema (EssenCES), an instrument validated in Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. It was administered to inmates and staff in three correctional facilities in the U.S. Midwest, one medium security and two maximum security. Survey results demonstrate higher levels of cohesion at the medium-security facility, but multivariate analysis suggests a much more complex relationship between facility and environment, varying particularly in response to perceived inmate threat. Qualitative data suggest that understanding these associations is vital to building socially adaptive conditions and prosocial change.

Supplemental Material for Rethinking the Nature of Cruelty: The Role of Identity Leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment

Supplemental Material for Rethinking the Nature of Cruelty: The Role of Identity Leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment

Teaching scientific thinking using recent archival revelations about the Stanford Prison Experiment

Although the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) has been challenged on methodological, theoretical, and ethical grounds, these criticisms have been largely ignored by teachers and textbook authors. Recent revelations arising from an analysis of the SPE archival materials, however, not only strongly support these past criticisms but also question the scientific validity of the SPE and the accuracy of Zimbardo’s published and media accounts of it. These revelations have led some psychologists to call for the removal of SPE coverage in psychology courses and textbooks. We agree with this call but recommend that coverage of the SPE in light of the archival revelations replace it in order to teach psychology students about science and scientific thinking, critical elements in the psychology curriculum. We provide examples of how this can be done to teach the critical role of falsification in science and the negative influence of careerism on scientific research.

Supplemental Material for Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment

Supplemental Material for Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment

How to get out of the Stanford Prison Experiment: Revisiting Social Science Research Ethics

The Stanford Prison Experiment has continued to raise questions about social science research ethics. Male student volunteers were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards in a simulation in which the guards became sadistic and the prisoners showed extreme stress. Two ethical issues are the ability of the participants to leave the experiment and the failure to provide adequate oversight and intervening to limit the abuse of the prisoners. In 2018, these issues were revisited and some declared the experiment unscientific and untrustworthy. However, the experiment was carried out before many social science research ethics were established. A detailed description of the experiment reveals insights on how group dynamics and social structure can encourage normal individuals to harm one another in a prison environment. The study is a cautionary tale that should be included in textbooks to improve social science research, demonstrate the need for research ethics, and prevent outrageous treatment of prisoners in the real world.