psychology the stanford prison experiment bbc documentary

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Stanford Prison Experiment

About one of the most controversial experiments in the history of psychology, invoked to shed light on everything from the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, to prison rioting and police brut... Read all About one of the most controversial experiments in the history of psychology, invoked to shed light on everything from the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, to prison rioting and police brutality. In 1971 Professor Philip Zimbardo recruited students to play prisoners or guards in... Read all About one of the most controversial experiments in the history of psychology, invoked to shed light on everything from the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, to prison rioting and police brutality. In 1971 Professor Philip Zimbardo recruited students to play prisoners or guards in a makeshift jail to examine the nature of good and evil. Due to last two weeks, within da... Read all

• Philip Zimbardo
• Christina Maslach
• 1 User review

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

User reviews 1

Tragically great movie of unmitigated evil.

• Jul 22, 2023
• May 11, 2002 (United Kingdom)
• United Kingdom
• BBC Documentary on the Stanford Prison Experiment
• British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• £100,000 (estimated)
• Runtime 29 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• IMDb Answers: Help fill gaps in our data
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed.

Stanford prison experiment continues to shock

• Published 17 August 2011

This video can not be played

To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo and some of the former students who took part recall the experiment

Forty years ago a group of students hoping to make a bit of holiday money turned up at a basement in Stanford University, California, for what was to become one of the most notorious experiments in the study of human psychology.

The idea was simple - take a group of volunteers, tell half of them they are prisoners, the other half prison wardens, place them in a makeshift jail and watch what happens.

The Stanford prison experiment was supposed to last two weeks but was ended abruptly just six days later, after a string of mental breakdowns, an outbreak of sadism and a hunger strike.

"The first day they came there it was a little prison set up in a basement with fake cell doors and by the second day it was a real prison created in the minds of each prisoner, each guard and also of the staff," said Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist leading the experiment.

The volunteers had answered an advertisement in a local paper and both physical and psychological tests were done to make sure only the strongest took part.

Despite their uniforms and mirrored sunglasses, the guards struggled to get into character and at first Prof Zimbardo's team thought they might have to abandon the project.

'Very cruel guard'

As it turned out, they did not have to wait long.

"After the first day I noticed nothing was happening. It was a bit of a bore, so I made the decision I would take on the persona of a very cruel prison guard," said Dave Eshleman, one of the wardens who took a lead role.

The experiment took place in California in 1971

At the same time the prisoners, referred to only by their numbers and treated harshly, rebelled and blockaded themselves inside their cells.

The guards saw this as a challenge to their authority, broke up the demonstration and began to impose their will.

"Suddenly, the whole dynamic changed as they believed they were dealing with dangerous prisoners, and at that point it was no longer an experiment," said Prof Zimbardo.

It began by stripping them naked, putting bags over their heads, making them do press-ups or other exercises and humiliating them.

"The most effective thing they did was simply interrupt sleep, which is a known torture technique," said Clay Ramsey, one of the prisoners.

"What was demanded of me physically was way too much and I also felt that there was really nobody rational at the wheel of this thing so I started refusing food."

Power of situations

He was put in the janitor's cupboard - solitary confinement - and the other prisoners were punished because of his actions. It became a very stressful situation.

Dave Eshleman, who played the role of a prison guard said the experiment rapidly spun out of control

"It was rapidly spiralling out of control," said prison guard Mr Eshleman who hid behind his mirrored sunglasses and a southern US accent.

"I kept looking for the limits - at what point would they stop me and say 'No, this is only an experiment and I have had enough', but I don't think I ever reached that point."

Prof Zimbardo recalled a long list of prisoners who had breakdowns and had to leave the experiment. One even developed a psychosomatic all-over body rash.

The lead researcher had also been sucked into the experiment and had lost clarity.

"The experiment was the right thing to do, the wrong thing was to let it go past the second day," he said.

"Once a prisoner broke down we had proved the point - that situations can have a powerful impact - so I didn't end it when I should have."

In the end it was a fellow psychologist who intervened.

Prof Zimbardo had been dating Christina Maslach, a former graduate student, and when she saw what was happening in the basement she was visibly shocked, accusing him of cruelty. It snapped him out of the spell.

Prison disturbances in the US drew attention to the Stanford experiment and, all of a sudden, the dramatic results became well known in the US and all over the world.

"The study is the classic demonstration of the power of situations and systems to overwhelm good intentions of participants and transform ordinary, normal young men into sadistic guards or for those playing prisoners to have emotional breakdowns," said Prof Zimbardo.

'Ethically wrong'

The abusive prison guard, Mr Eshleman, also felt he gained something from the experiment.

"I learned that in a particular situation I'm probably capable of doing things I will look back on with some shame later on," he said.

"When I saw the pictures coming from Abu Ghraib in Iraq, it immediately struck me as being very familiar to me and I knew immediately they were probably just very ordinary people and not the bad apples the defence department tried to paint them as.

"I did some horrible things, so if I ever had the chance to repeat the experiment I wouldn't do it."

But prisoner Mr Ramsey felt the experiment should never have taken place as it had no true scientific basis and was ethically wrong.

"The best thing about it, is that it ended early," he said.

"The worst thing is that the author, Zimbardo, has been rewarded with a great deal of attention for 40 years so people are taught an example of very bad science."

But Prof Zimbardo calls this "naive" and argues the work was a very valuable addition to psychology - and its findings were important in understanding why abuse took place at Abu Ghraib.

"It does tell us that human nature is not totally under the control of what we like to think of as free will, but that the majority of us can be seduced into behaving in ways totally atypical of what we believe we are," he said.

Around the BBC

BBC Science: What is Psychology

Related internet links

Stanford University

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) took place in 1971. Young men were divided into the roles of Prisoner and Guard and put in a prison-like environment in the basement of the Psychology Department at Stanford University. The study was meant to last two weeks. But the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days.

The study provided a graphic illustration of the power of situations to shape individuals' behaviour. Zimbardo argued that the Guards acted the way they did because they conformed blindly to their assigned role , as did he in his position as Prison Superintendent:

Guard aggression … was emitted simply as a ‘natural’ consequence of being in the uniform of a ‘guard’ and asserting the power inherent in that role.

Furthermore, because the Guards could not help themselves, they could not be blamed for their actions.

Zimbardo has used this simple and powerful account to explain the atrocities committed by very diverse actors – from the suicide bombers who flew into New York’s Twin Towers on 9/11 to the American torturers at Iraq’s infamous Abu Ghraib prison.

According to Zimbardo, decent people tend 'naturally' to be corrupted by powerful roles

 These quotations relate to, and question, the ideas that emerged from the SPE

You are here

The Stanford Prison Experiment (BBC)

This is a sample. For full access:

Please choose from the following options to gain full access to this content

Log in via your academic institution

Related items, view my options.

Create an account and get 24 hours access for free.

Accessibility links

• Skip to content
• Accessibility Help

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Claudia Hammond looks at the development of the science of psychology. When Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison, he had no idea that the resulting behaviour would be so extreme.

Claudia Hammond presents a series looking at the development of the science of psychology during the 20th century.

When Philip Zimbardo set up a mock prison, he had no idea that the resulting behaviour would be so extreme that he would have to abandon the experiment. Over 30 years later, when he saw photos of the abuse in Abu Ghraib, it was with the shock of recognition that he went on to testify in the defence of one of the accused soldiers.

Available now

More episodes

Hans eysenck, the heinz dilemma.

See all episodes from Mind Changers

Related Content

Similar programmes.

• Factual > Science & Nature
• Documentaries