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Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison.
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1973
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Unknown Venue
Forensic PsychologyPrison EnvironmentSocial PsychologySocial SciencesPsychologyFunctional SimulationPrison ViolencePrison GuardsSocial IdentityBehavioral SciencesApplied Social PsychologyForensic PsychiatryOffender ClassificationCriminal JusticeSimulated PrisonSocial BehaviorSociologyCarceral SettingAggressionCriminal Behavior
The study aimed to assess how social forces shape emergent behavior by eliminating pre‑existing dispositions through selective subject recruitment. Researchers created an extended prison simulation where participants role‑played prisoners and guards, using subject selection to control for pre‑existing traits. Participants largely abandoned personal identities, with some adopting aggressive guard roles that enjoyed dehumanizing peers, while those assigned to prisoners displayed passivity, dependency, depression, helplessness, and self‑deprecation.
Abstract : Interpersonal dynamics in a prison environment were studied experimentally by designing a functional simulation of a prison in which subjects role-played prisoners and guards for an extended period of time. To assess the power of the social forces on the emergent behavior in this situation, alternative explanations in terms of pre-existing dispositions were eliminated through subject selection. Many of the subjects ceased distinguishing between prison role and their prior self-identities. When this occurred, a sample of normal, healthy American college students fractionated into a group of prison guards who seemed to derive pleasure from insulting, threatening, humiliating, and dehumanizing their peers--those who by chance selection had been assigned to the 'prisoner' role. The typical prisoner syndrome was one of passivity, dependency depression, helplessness, and self- deprecation.