#45: The Stanford Prison "Experiment"

In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo gathered a group of undergraduate students and convinced them that they were not allowed to leave the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department. Half of the group played the role of guards, while the other half became prisoners for what was supposed to be a 14-day experiment.  What followed was six days of legitimized abuse, and fifty years of legitimized research, all based on a misrepresentation of motives. In this episode I talk about what happened in that study, and what it means about our human tendency to blame our bad behavior on others. Support the show