Question

Why was the Zimbardo/Stanford Prison Study called off after six days?

Answer 1

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. It was a landmark psychological study to demonstrate the human response to captivity. Under Philip Zimbardo, the acting prison warden, a simulated prison environment was created to study the development of norms, the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations. The Stanford prison experiment was originally conceived to last two weeks but was called off after just six days considering the state of participant’s. It was observed that within twenty-four hours of the study’s start, the students who were playing the guards began humiliating and psychologically abusing the prisoners. Consequently, the prisoners became submissive and suffered mental breakdowns. As the experiment had gone out of control so it was called off after six days on the insistence of Christina Maslach, a former graduate student.