What was the Stanford prison expirament?

Answer 1

The Stanford Prison Experiment is one of the most famous experiments in psychology's history, conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. The experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming either a prisoner or prison guard. Randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards were assigned to student volunteers in a mock prison situation. 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, while many of the prisoners passively accepted the abuse and, at the request of the guards, even harassed other prisoners. The experiment 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. The results of the experiment have been presented to illustrate the impressionability and obedience of people when placed within a situation of presumed institutional authority and socially legitimized stereotypes.