Ads were then placed in the local newspapers surrounding Stanford University offering to pay participants $15 per day. Upon extensive screening twenty four college students were selected to take part in this mock prison experiment. Each participant had been informed that certain civil rights may be violated such as personal privacy, minimal food etc. Once full consent was given, the participants were randomly assigned into separate groups, prisoners and guards. .
Experiment .
In just two days' time the prisoners had blockaded their cell doors and refused to come out or follow any instructions given by the guards. The guards began to attack the prisoners with fire extinguishers and forced them to repeat their assigned numbers to reinforce their new identity. Sanitary conditions began to decline rapidly. As a form of punishment prisoners were forced to be naked, to urinate and defecate into buckets in their cells, mattresses were removed leaving prisoners forced to sleep on concrete. The guards also created a privilege cell which prisoners who were not involved in the rebellion were treated with special rewards. In just this short amount of time one prisoner became hysterical, screaming and began cursing. This behavior led to a rage so out of control he was subsequently released. In fact half the prisoners were released early due to severe emotional as well as cognitive reactions (Zimbardo 2007). After only six days of the planned two week period, the Stanford prison experiment was aborted. The results of this experiment have been argued and retested throughout time.
BBC Experiment.
The BBC experiment was a documentary series produced by Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam that simulated a prison over the course of eight days. Their objective was to demonstrate that group membership is the basis of resistance as well as cruelty. Fifteen men were randomly selected and assigned to assume the role of either prisoner or guard ( Haslam, 2006).
