It turned out that people who played prison guards began to become violent, while those who played prisoners were planning a rebellion. The experiment was quickly stopped, but its research results have been concerned by people for many years and caused widespread controversy.
The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted at Stanford University in 197 1, when zimbardo was teaching at Stanford University. Zimbardo transformed the basement of the Psychology Department building into a prison, and invited a group of students to participate in the experiment, which cost $65,438 +05 a day. To take part in the experiment, these students must pass a test to prove that they are "normal people with mental health and no disease"
A * * * 70 students from all over the United States applied to participate in this two-week experiment. Most of them are students attending summer courses at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. Twenty-four students passed the test. These students were randomly divided into two groups: nine students were "prisoners" in prison, nine students were "guards" in three shifts, and the remaining six were experimental candidates.
In order to simulate the reality more truly, the student identity of "prisoner" was replaced by numbers. Everyone put on the prisoner's clothes and put on shackles and handcuffs. Some students were arrested at home and put on brown paper hoods. California police who agreed to cooperate with zimbardo in the experiment were arrested. In the face of the roaring police, the neighbors were greatly surprised, while the students who played the role of "guards" were dressed in police uniforms and black. Students who volunteered to participate in the experiment were told that some of their human rights might be violated during the experiment.
Only in this way can the two sides truly enter the preset role. Shocking things should not happen in the mock prison in zimbardo. In the final analysis, these so-called guards and prisoners are "normal, mentally healthy" good people who have passed the psychological test. Zimbardo was also frank at the seminar held in Toronto on 1996. Before the experiment, he thought it might be just a boring two weeks.
The meeting at the beginning of the experiment was awkward. After all, both prison guards and prisoners need time to get into the role. So this group of student prisoners, who were impressed by the anti-Vietnam War student movement in the United States at that time, began to challenge authority, tore off the numbers sewn on their clothes, locked themselves in their cells, ignored the orders of prison guards and made fun of them.
The prison guard was at a loss. As the warden and the head of the experiment, zimbardo told the prison guard to solve the problem by himself. Prison guards took measures to "suppress" prisoners, stripped them naked, confined them for several hours, confiscated pillows and bedding, canceled their meals, humiliated them by doing push-ups or some meaningless activities, deprived them of sleep, pulled them out in the middle of the night to count the number, and engaged in various humiliating activities. They also adopted a psychological differentiation strategy, and good prisoners who obey management will be provided with privileges, better cells and meals.
These "normal, mentally healthy" good people "guards" learn quickly. If you have seen any movies about prisons, this is a common strategy of prison guards. With the progress of the experiment, the disciplinary measures taken by the guards became more and more serious, so that the experimenter had to remind them.
At the end of 36 hours, a prisoner quit the experiment because of his extreme nervousness and hysterical symptoms such as crying and cursing. The experiment lasted less than two days, and a "normal, mentally healthy" good man was tortured to the brink of collapse by a group of "normal, mentally healthy" good people.
The prisoner with the number of 86 12 was the leader who led the prisoner to resist and challenge the rights of prison guards on the first day, so he received "special care" in the counterattack of prison guards. When a series of punishments were carried out behind him, 86 12 realized that this was not a simulated experiment or a virtual prison, but a "real prison set up by psychologists rather than the government". When 86 12 made a face-to-face request to zimbardo, zimbardo had completely entered the role of warden. What he considered was not the mental state of 86 12, but that if 86 12 quit, more people would quit and the experiment could not be carried out.
So zimbardo, like the warden in all prison movies, promised 86 12 that the prison guards would stop torturing him and give him good treatment. At the same time, he proposed a Faustian deal: let 86 12 return to prison as his eyes and provide him with prison information. If he agrees, zimbardo will "release" 86 12 later. 86 12 promised zimbardo regression experiment. 86 12 returned to prison, and other prisoners began to realize that they could not quit, and the person in charge of the experiment did not let them quit the experiment. Hopes were dashed.
Zimbardo recalled his judgment afterwards. He felt that 86 12 was too fragile to bear even a little pressure.
As an experimental designer and psychologist, zimbardo should objectively evaluate the state of 86 12, but the result was gradually controlled by the role of the warden, which affected his judgment. This control lasted until the sixth day, and it was not until an outsider appeared that zimbardo was "saved" from the role of the warden.
On the night of 86 12' s exit (36 hours), Craig Haney, a graduate student in zimbardo, was on the night shift as one of the experimental leaders, and found that 86 12 "had a nervous breakdown and strongly demanded to leave", and 86 12 could not stand the constant harassment of "prison guards" because he led the prisoners on the first day. After agreeing to let 86 12 leave the prison for a short rest, Craig Hani had to make a decision that seemed easy to outsiders, but he felt extremely difficult at that time: whether to agree to 86 12 leave or refuse his request? Zimbardo is his mentor and "boss", so he can't be disturbed to rest in the middle of the night. Do you agree After all, I am only a second-year graduate student, and this experiment took a lot of effort and money to prepare. Letting 86 12 quit easily means that the experimental design is affected, and the accuracy of the results is undoubtedly questionable. After some struggle, Craig Hani decided to agree to 86 12 to quit the experiment.
Zimbardo and his colleagues returned to the laboratory the next morning and questioned why Craig Hani agreed to let 86 12 withdraw from the experiment. Zimbardo approved Hani's decision. In the reserve list, they selected a student and asked him to join the experiment that afternoon to fill the vacancy of 86 12.
In the basement of Stanford University's ancient and solemn psychology building, hostility is escalating, and prison guards continue their games and try their best to torture prisoners. Prisoners continue to be tortured and respond as obediently as the walking dead. This is no longer a cosplay, a pleasant summer memory, a comfortable work experience, but a nightmare. At the beginning of the experiment, "there is no difference between guards and prisoners; After the experiment lasted for one week, there was no similarity between the two. "
The devil has been released. It grinned at this group of good people who used to be "healthy and psychologically normal", and it made some "guards" indulge in the pleasure of discipline and punishment; Some people have to cooperate with other guards despite their psychological feelings, but they have to cooperate with other guards under the obligation of obedience given by their roles and commitments. They have never raised objections and objections, but only provided help to prisoners privately; It sowed hatred in the prisoners' hearts, so that when the "guards" and "prisoners" sat together to discuss after the experiment, hostile emotions turned the discussion into fierce confrontation. When they were interviewed and investigated by the experimenters during the experiment, they were all suspicious. In their view, this group of initially friendly and kind experimenters are the makers of cages. It makes psychologists who should be objective lose their judgment.
The experiment lasted until the sixth day. The gradual deterioration of the prison situation started the psychological adaptation mechanism of all participants, and everything was normal, just as arranged in the experimental design. The initial impression that "this is a madhouse" for the alternate students who joined the experiment in 86 12 with the code name of 4 16 has also been replaced by the view that "this should be a madhouse". Although he resisted by hunger strike at first, it should be the most normal experience after the prisoners humiliated him at the instigation of the guards. He was completely isolated. His hunger strike made the guards and prisoners suffer some kind of.
The prisoners accepted the guard's request conditionally. Some prisoners imitate 86 12 and perform "crazy performances" in the hope of quitting the experiment. On the third, fourth and fifth days of the experiment, a prisoner was allowed to quit the experiment. After his withdrawal request was rejected, the fifth prisoner developed rash symptoms all over his body and finally withdrew from the experiment.
During the experiment, prisoners actually have many opportunities to get in touch with the outside world. In the experiment that lasted only six days, about 65,438+000 people contacted this group of prisoners in different capacities, including a real warden. After contacting all the prisoners, he observed that the simulation experiment had a very similar reaction to those who were imprisoned for the first time. More than 20 students from the psychology department observed the experiment from video monitors and windows. The parents and friends of 24 prisoners contacted the prisoners during the visit, and one of their mothers visited a priest after the visit. After the priest found a lawyer to provide legal advice on how to get her children out of Stanford prison, the lawyer interviewed all the prisoners on the last day of the experiment.
More than 65,438+000 people, including guards and prisoners, and zimbardo, the designer and psychologist of the experiment, never thought that there was another option: stop the experiment. They became insiders, trapped in an iron cage woven under the pretext of reason and science, unable to get away and playing their respective roles.
Until the sixth day of the experiment, a young lady visited. Christina Maslach was moved when zimbardo invited her to participate in the research project of the Stanford prison experiment. Just got a doctorate in psychology from Stanford University, and her other identity is zimbardo's girlfriend. However, Christina has obtained the position of assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and is about to leave her job, so she has to refuse her lover's invitation because she is too busy.
But she promised zimbardo to help with the interview. In order to prepare for the interview, she arrived at Stanford prison on Thursday night after about a week's experiment. The first impression is calm. After talking with one of the guards, she felt that he was a polite, friendly and pleasant person.
And that night, the guard in charge of the shift change was nicknamed john wayne, the most notorious guard in Stanford Prison. Despite hearing what john wayne did, Christina was absolutely shocked when she met John Wayne: contrary to the rumor, john wayne was an absolutely good man. But it was not until she began to observe the experiment that she saw a completely different person: he was wearing black sunglasses, holding batons and wearing a uniform, swearing at the prisoner and showing a rude attitude when asking the prisoner to count off.
It's time for a bath. The bathroom is outside the prison, and the prison guards lock the prisoners in a row with shackles. Everyone is wearing hoods and can't see the environment at all. Then take them to the bathroom. Zimbardo looked at what was happening in the prison through the observation window, but Christina turned her head away and couldn't bear to look again. Her heart was filled with a cold and disgusting feeling: such a cruel scene made her feel powerless in a patriarchal world.
After leaving the experimental site, Zimba wondered what Christina thought of the whole experiment. But what he got was unexpected anger, fear and tears, debates and quarrels. Christina's scared. In front of her, this is no longer her familiar lover, the gentle and sensitive psychologist of Stanford University, who is famous for loving life like a child. There has never been such a huge opposition and disagreement between their positions, and their quarrel has never been so fierce, so long and left such a huge trauma. She can't even imagine getting along with such people in the future.
As a result of this quarrel, zimbardo finally gave in, accurately and objectively escaped from his role as a warden and his pursuit of experimental rationality, apologized to his lover, and decided to terminate the experiment the next morning. Gather all the people involved in the experiment and reflect on the whole process: how a simulated experiment gradually evolved into a real prison, such a serious and crazy place.
Zimbardo was not disappointed, but relieved, relieved, and his relationship with his then girlfriend Christina, who later became his wife.
But what really scares Christina is her role as a system challenger and disobedient. If she has participated in the experiment, if she has participated in the design and witnessed what happens every day, she will have psychological adaptability. Will this madhouse become a normal madhouse like all the other 65,438+000 people who participated in the experimental project? She really can't give a definite answer.