Stanford Prison Experiment the Stanford

Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford prison study seems like an absurd psychological experiment by today's ethical standards. Issues of research design and validity aside, the Stanford prison experiment was ethically questionable on several counts. To make prisoners clean toilet bowls with their bare hands, to deprive the prisoners of sleep by waking them up in the middle of the night for arbitrary counts, and to chain their feet together are deplorable methods that took the Stanford experiment too far.

The ethical problems started even before the experiment began, as Zimbardo never mentions anything about informed consent. Although Zimbardo insists that participants were thoroughly screened for pre-existing psychological conditions there was no way of knowing for sure which of them might have been prone to developing psychological disorders. Especially in the early 1970s when the experiment was conducted, awareness of the nature and extent of psychological trauma was minimal. No clear diagnostic procedures were used, and the participants had no idea what they were getting themselves into. More importantly, they were not guaranteed the right to terminate the experiment at their will. When Prisoner 8621 asked to get out of the experiment he was summarily ridiculed and sent back. It was only when he screamed that Zimbardo was forced to let him quit. Guards were also given far too much leeway in their ability to mentally abuse and thoroughly humiliate the prisoners. There were no checks on their behavior.