Feature Film - The Stanford Prison Experiment (Documentary)

[Man] I was the first one to be
picked up, so they put me in a cell

they locked me in there

in this degrading little outfit.

[Guard] Hey! I don't want anybody laughing!

My way is the rule!

[unintelligible yelling]

[Man] I've gotta go to a doctor, anything.

[Man] Jesus Christ, I'm burning up inside dontcha know!

I want out!

I want out now!

[Man] I've never screamed
so loud in my life,

never been so upset in my life.

It was an experience of
being out of control.

[Man] I just fucking can't take it.

[Narrator] Stanford University,
Northern California.

One of America's most
prestigious academic institutions

and in 1971, the scene of one
of the most notorious experiments

in the history of psychology.

[Zimbardo] I was interested in what happens
if you put good people in an evil place.

Does the situation outside of you, the
institution, come to control your behavior

or does the things inside of you,

your attitudes, your values, your morality

allow you to rise above
a negative environment?

[Narrator] The negative environment
Zimbardo chose to test his ideas,

was a prison.

He would convert the basement of
the university psychology department

into a subterranean jail.

[Zimbardo] We put prison doors
on each of three office cells.

In the cells, it was
nothing but three beds

and there was actually very little room for
anything else because they're very small.

And here we had solitary confinement,
which we call "the hole."

And in the hole was where the prisoners
would be put for punishment.

It was a very very small area.

When you close the door,
it was totally dark.

All the guards wore
military uniforms

and we had them wear these
silver reflecting sunglasses.

And what it does is,
you can't see someone's eyes

and that loses some the
humanness, the humanity.

In general, we wanted to
create a sense of power.

That the guards as a category, are
people who have power over others.

And in this case,
power over the prisoners.

[Narrator] A decade earlier,

psychologist Stanley Milgrim had also
looked at how we respond to authority.

In order to understand how people were
induced to obey unjust regimes

and participate in atrocities such as
the holocaust, he set up an experiment.

Volunteers were told they were taking part
in scientific research to improve memory.

[Experimenter] Would you open those and
tell me which of you is which please?

[First man] Teacher.
[Second man] Learner.

[Narrator] Separated by a screen,

the teacher would ask the
learner questions in a word game

and administer an electric shock
when the answer was incorrect.

He was told to increase the
voltage with each wrong answer.

[Teacher] Cloud, horse,
rock, or house? Answer?

[buzz]
[Teacher] Wrong.

150 volts.
Answer: horse.

[Learner] Ow! That's all! Get me out
of here! Get me out of here, please!

[Experimenter] Continue please.
[teacher gesturing, unsure]

[Learner] I refuse to go on! Let me out!

[Experimenter] The experiment requires
you continue, teacher. Please continue.

[Narrator] Participants didn't know
that the learner was really an actor

and the so-called shocks, were harmless.

[Teacher] Now you'll
get a shock. 180 volts.

[Learner] Ow! I can't stand
the pain, let me out of here!

[Teacher] He can't stand the pain,
I'm not going to kill that man.

Who's going to take the responsibility if
anything happens to that gentleman?

[Experimenter] I'm responsible for
anything that happens here. Continue please.

[Teacher] Alright, next one.
Slow, walk, dance, truck, music.

[Narrator] 2/3 of volunteers were prepared to
administer potentially fatal electric shock

when encouraged to do so by what they
perceived to be a legitimate authority figure.

In this case, a man in a white coat.

[Teacher] 375 volts. I think something's
happened to that fellow in there.

I got no answer, he was
hollering at all this voltage.

Can you check him to see
if he's alright please?

[Narrator] Milgrim's
findings horrified America.

They showed that decent American citizens
were as capable of committing acts

against their conscious

as the Germans had been under the Nazis.

Like Milgrim, Zimbardo was interested

in the power of social situations
to overwhelm individuals.

His experiment would test people's
responses to an oppressive regime.

Would they accept it?
Or act against it?

Zimbardo's experiment was conducted
against a backdrop of Civil Rights activism

and protests against the Vietnam war.

[Zimbardo] It was a sense of
student power, student dominance

and student rebellion
against authority in general.

[Narrator] It was from the student body
Zimbardo selected his participants.

After passing tests, to screen out
anyone with a psychological abnormality,

they were paid $15 a day.

Each was randomly assigned
the role of guard or prisoner.

[Man] It was a prison to me,
it still is a prison to me.

I don't look at it as an
experiment or a simulation.

It was just a prison that was run by
psychologists instead of run by the state.

[Ramsay] I was 20, and that
September I was going to college.

And it would be nice to have a summer job,
but there sure wasn't a lot of time left.

And I looked in the want ads and I found
this thing which was just going to fit.

It was just two weeks.

[Man] You put a uniform on,
and are given a job

to keep these people in line.

You really become that person once
you put on that khaki uniform,

you put on the glasses,
you take the nightstick.

[Eshleman] I was on summer
break from my first year of college

and I was looking for a job.

Had to chose between
that or making pizzas.

And that sounded like a lot more fun.

[Narrator] As well as running the experiment,

Zimbardo took on the role
of prison superintendent.

He began by briefing the guards.

[Zimbardo] I said, "We have to
maintain law and order.

"If prisoners escape, the study is over.
And you can't use physical violence."

[Zimbardo] You can
create a sense of fear in them.

You can create a notion that their
life is totally in control by us.

There will be constant surveillance,

we have total power of the
situation and they have none.

[Narrator] Prisoners were
brought to the basement prison,

blindfolded to confuse them
about their whereabouts.

They were stripped and deloused.

[Zimbardo] of course the guards
started making fun of their genitals

and humiliating them and really it starts
what's known as a degradation process.

Which not only prisons, but lots of
military type outfits use that process.

[Prisoner ] When I first got there,
even though I had to strip,

and they would call me names, I still
didn't feel at all like it was a prison.

I just looked at it like a job.

[Eshleman] I recall sort of walking
up and down the very short hallway,

which was the prison hall
and looking in on the prisoners.

And they're basically lounging
around on their beds.

I felt it was like
a day in summer camp.

[Zimbardo] The first day I said,

"This might be a very long
and very boring experiment,"

because it's conceivable
nothing will ever happen.

[Eshleman] I arrived independently
at the conclusion

that this experiment must
have been put together

to prove a point about prisons
being a cruel and inhumane place.

And therefore, I would do my part,
to help those results come about.

I was a confrontational and
arrogant 18 year old at the time

and I said "somebody outta
stir things up a bit here."

[Prisoner] Fuck this experiment
and fuck that Zimbardo!

[Narrator] On the second morning,
prisoners decided to stir things up as well.

The guards found some of them had used
their beds to barricade their cell.

Prisoner 8612 was one of the
ring leaders of the rebellion.

[yelling] ...Fucking simulation! It's a fucking simulated experiment!

[Indistinct yelling]

[Zimbardo] Initially I was stunned.

I didn't expect a rebellion
because not much happened.

And it wasn't clear what
they were rebelling against,

but they were rebelling against the status,

rebelling against being anonymous,

against having to follow orders
from these other students.

[Narrator] As punishment for the rebellion,

prisoner 8612 was put in the hole and
the guards turned on the other prisoners.

[Zimbardo] The guards felt that they
now had to up the ante of being tough.

The prisoners made the mistake of
beginning to use profanity against the guards

in a very personalized way.

So not against the guards, but now
"you little punk" "you big shit" and stuff.

And the guards got furious.

[Guard] Everybody up! Everybody get up!

Well gentlemen, here
it is time for count.

[Narrator] Prisoners were repeatedly
woken in the middle of the night.

The guards made them
do menial physical tasks

and clean out toilets
with their bare hands.

[Eshleman] We made it a point not
to give them any sense of comfort

or what to expect.

Anything could happen to them at any time,

including being rousted from
their sleep at any hour.

And forced to stand up in a line
and have me hurl insults at them

and make them do exercises.

When you interrupt people's sleep,
they tend to become a little disoriented.

And since there was no daylight in the prison,
they had no idea whether it was night or day.

I think that I was the instigator of this

whole schedule of harrassment.

[Narrator] The harassment of the guards
took it's toll on rebellion leader 8612.

He told Zimbardo he wanted
to leave the experiment.

Zimbardo responded not as a psychologist
but as a prison superintendent.

[Zimbardo] I said, "Well, I can see to it
the guards don't hassle you personally

and in return all I would like
is some information from time to time

about what the prisoners are doing."

So essentially I'm saying "I'd
like you to be a snitch, an informant."

And I said "think it over and
if you still want to leave, fine."

[Narrator] Confused, prisoner
8612 returned to his cell

and told the other prisoners
that no one could leave.

[Zimbardo] He believed we wouldn't
let him go, although we never said that.

But the fact that he was the
ring leader of the rebellion

and he told the other prisoners
"they won't let you leave,"

that really transformed the
experiment into a prison.

[Prisoner] I was told I couldn't quit. And
at that point, I just felt totally hopeless.

More hopeless than I
had ever felt before.

[Narrator] Soon after returning to his cell,

prisoner 8612 started showing
signs of severe distress.

[Prisoner 8612] Goddammit. Fucked up!
You don't know, you don't know.

I mean, God, I mean Jesus Christ,
I'm burning up inside, don't you know?

[Zimbardo] He came up with a
plan that if he acted crazy,

we would have to release him.

[Prisoner 8612] I feel fucked up inside,
I feel really fucked up inside. You don't know.

I gotta go to a doctor, anything.
I can't stay here, I'm fucked up.

I don't know how to explain it,
I'm fucked up inside! And I want out!

[Zimbardo] It starts with make-believe and
then he's doing it and cursing and screaming.

You know, whatever that little
boundary is, he moved across,

not that he became really crazy,
but he became excessively disturbed.

So much so, we immediately said,
"We have to release him."

[Korpi--prisoner 8612] As an
experience, it was unique.

I've never screamed
so loud in my life.

Never been so upset in my life,

and it was an experience
of being out of control.

[Narrator] The boundary between
reality and make-believe

was to become blurred
even for Zimbardo.

A rumor circulated that released
prisoner 8612 would return with friends

to liberate the remaining prisoners.

[Zimbardo] I quickly convinced myself that

my most important function was not to
allow this prison liberation to occur.

And what could I do to keep my prison going?

Not the experiment going.

[Narrator] The prison was dismantled

and the prisoners were moved
another part of the building.

Zimbardo waited in the empty
corridor preparing to tell 8612

and his friends that the study was over.

When a colleague appeared

and began asking questions
about the scientific basis of the research.

[Zimbardo] I'm trying to get
rid of him and then he says,

"What's the independent variable?"

I got furious, because he doesn't understand
that there's a riot about to take place,

that this prison is about to erupt.

I had totally lost this whole other identity
of scientist, researcher, psychologist.

[Narrator] The rumored jailbreak
never materialized.

The guards had dismantled
the prison for nothing

and had to rebuild it.

They took their frustration
out on the prisoners.

[Zimbardo] They escalated
again the level of control.

the level of dominance,
the level of humiliating behavior.

[Narrator] 819 was the next prisoner to
rebel against the harassment of the guards.

He barricaded himself in his cell
and refused to take part in the count.

[Guard] You're not only
not getting cigarettes,

but for as long as this cell's blockaded

you're going to be in
solitary when you get out.

[Narrator] For 819's disobedience, the guards
made his cellmates do mindless work.

This undermined any vestige of
solidarity amongst the prisoners

who now chose to accept
the tyranny of the guards

rather than risk further harassment.

[Eshleman] That was one of
the surprising things to me was that

there was so little that the
prisoners did to support one another

after we started our
campaign of divide and conquer.

[Narrator] Isolated and
distraught, prisoner 819

told Zimbardo he wanted to leave.

[Zimbardo] While I'm interviewing
819, and saying,

"Okay, it's all over, thank you
for your participation.

I'll give you money for the whole two weeks,
even though you're leaving early."

He hears the prisoners
shouting: "819 did a bad thing."

[Prisoners] Prisoner 819 did a bad thing.
Prisoner 819 did a bad thing.

And he said, "I can't leave."
And he's crying.

And he said, "I can't leave."

And I said, "What do
you mean you can't leave?"

And he said, "No, I have to go back because
I don't want them to think I'm a bad prisoner."

And that's when I really flipped
out that in such a short time

a college student's thinking
could become so distorted.

I said, "You're not a bad prisoner.

"You're not a prisoner.
And this is not a prison."

And it was just this thing where

he opened up his eyes, really
like a cloud being lifted.

[Narrator] Seeing things clearly, prisoner 819
reverted to his original request and was released.

To replace him, the experimenters called
in one of their reserves from the standby list.

[Ramsay] I got a phone call saying,
"Are you still available as an alternate?"

Kind of a cheery, female secretary voice.

And I said, "Yes, sure."

And so she said,
"Could you start this afternoon?"

And I said, "Yes, sure."

And my role in the
experiment really began.

I was blindfolded and then
stripped and supposedly deloused.

[Zimbardo] He came into
a madhouse, full blown.

All of us, had gradually acclimated
to the increasing level of aggression,

increasing powerlessness of the prisoners,

increasing dominance of the guards.

And he comes in and says, "What's
happening here?" to the other prisoners.

And they said
"Yeah, you better not make trouble,

it's really terrible, it's a real prison."

And he says, "I'm out of here,
I don't want this."

And they said "No, you can't leave.

Once you're here, you're stuck.
This is a real prison."

[Guard] 416 put your hands in the air
or why don't you play Frankenstein?

293 you can be the bride of
Frankenstein, you stand here.

[Narrator] Prisoner 416 was soon subjected
to the harassment of Dave Eshleman,

nicknamed John Wayne
because of his macho attitude.

[Guard] 416 I want you to walk over here like
Frankenstein and say that you love 2093.

That ain't a Frankenstein walk!

[Eshleman] I made the
decision that I would be

as intimidating, as cold, as cruel as possible.

[Prisoner 416] I love you 2093.
[Guard] Get up close! Get up close!

[Prisoner 416] I love you 2093.
I love you 2093.

[Guard] You get down
here and do ten pushups!

[Eshleman] I had just watched
a movie called Cool Hand Luke

and the mean intimidating southern
prison warden character in that film

really was my inspiration for the
role that I created for myself.

[Zimbardo] He was creative in his evil.

He would think of very ingenious ways
to degrade, to demean the prisoners.

[Guard] What if I told you to get
down on that floor and fuck the floor

what would you do then?

[Zimbardo] One of the best guards,
was also on that shift

and instead of confronting the
bad guard, the sadistic guard

essentially, because he didn't
want to see what was happening,

he became the gofer, he went out to
get the food and things of this kind.

And that left the John Wayne guard and the
other guard on that shift to be dominant.

[One of the guards] We were
continually called upon to act

in a way that is contrary
to what I really feel inside.

Just continually giving out shit.

It's really just one of the
most oppressive things you can do.

[Guard] 416, while they do pushups,
you sing Amazing Grace.

Ready? Down.

[prisoner singing]

[Guard] Keep going.

[Narrator] The madness of the
experiment started to affect 416.

[prisoner singing]

[Guard] Keep going!

>>[Prisoner 416] I began feeling like, I was
losing my identity, until I wasn't Clay.

I was 416.

I was really my number and 416
was going to decide what to do.

[Narrator] Prisoner 416 decided
to go on a hunger strike.

[Ramsay] They were pushing my limits,

but here was the thing that I could do,

that could push their limits.

After I had missed a couple meals,

I saw this was not a matter
of indifference to the guards.

I was making headway, they were upset.

[Eshleman] I thought, "How dare this
newcomer come in and try to change

everything that we had worked
for the first three days to set up.

And by God, he's going to suffer for that."

[Narrator] Frustrated by
his continued defiance,

John Wayne threw prisoner 416 into the hole.

After punishing the other prisoners,
for his disobedience,

John Wayne encouraged them to
vent their anger at 416 directly.

[Prisoner] Thank you, 416.
[bangs on door]

[Guard] Ok, 209.
[Prisoner] Thank you, 416.

[Eshleman] We would use our nightsticks to
bang on the door and we would kick the door

so hard it must've shaken
him very seriously inside.

Scared the life out of him.

[Ramsay] He yelled at me, and
threatened me and actually sort of

smashed a sausage into my face
to try to get me to open up.

But I didn't have any intention
of eating until I was out.

[Zimbardo] 416 should've
been, at some level, a hero

'cause he's willing to oppose
the authority of the system.

In fact, the prisoners accept the guards
definition of him as a troublemaker.

[Eshleman] I remember some of them
saying: "Would you eat goddammit!"

"We're sick and tired of this."

And that was proof that there was no solidary,
there was no support between the prisoners.

[Narrator] While 416 was still in the hole,

John Wayne made a final
attempt to break him

by giving his fellow prisoners a choice.

They could vote to release
him by making small sacrifice.

[Guard] You can give me your blankets
and sleep on the bare mattress

or you can keep your blankets
and 416 will stay in another day.

What will it be?

[Prisoners] I'll keep my blankets.

[Guard] What will it be over here?

[Prisoners] I'll keep my blankets.

[Guard] How about 536?

[Prisoners] I'll give you my blankets
Mr. Correctional Officer.

[Guard] We don't want your blankets

[Guard] We got 3 in favor of keeping their blankets.

We got 3 against 1.

Keep your blankets.

416 you're going to be in there for a while,
so just get used to it.

[Eshleman] The study
showed that power corrupts

and how difficult it is for people who are the
victims of abuse to stand up and defend themselves.

Why doesn't anybody who is being abused
by a spouse or something like that

just say "stop it?"

And we realize now that it's
not as easy as it sounds.

[Narrator] By the end of the 5th day, 4
prisoners had broken down and been released.

416 was on the second
day of his hunger strike

and the experiment still had another 9 days to run.

At this point, a fellow psychologist
visited Zimbardo's basement prison

and would witness the brutality
of the experiment first hand.

[Zimbardo] The guards had lined up
the prisoners to go to the toilet.

They had bags over their heads,
chains on their feet,

and were marching by and I looked up.

And I saw this circus, this parade,

and I said, "Hey Chris, look at that."

[Christina Maslach] I looked up, and
I began to feel sick to my stomach.

I had this just...
chilling, sickening feeling

of watching this and you
know, I just turned away.

And I just let loose
in this emotional tyranny.

I just lost it.

I was angry, scared, I was in tears.

[Zimbardo] And I'm furious,

saying you know, we had a big argument.

You're supposed to
be a psychologist.

This is interesting dynamic behavior
and I'm going through this whole thing

the power of the situation.

And she says "No, no, it's
that young boys are suffering

and you're responsible.
You're letting it happen."

I said "Oh my god,
of course you're right."

[Narrator] The next day,
Zimbardo ended the experiment.

Studies like his stimulated heated debate
about the ethics of using human subjects.

[Zimbardo] Really young men
suffered verbally, physically.

Prisoners felt shame in their role.

Guards felt guilt.

So in that sense, it's unethical.

That is, nobody has the right, the power,
the privilege to do that to other people.

[Narrator] In the wake of experiments
like Zimbardo's and Milgrim's

ethical guidelines changed, introducing
greater safeguards to protect participants.

In the Standford experiment, Zimbardo
might have sped his volunteers distress

had he not taken on a dual role in the study.

[Zimbardo] If I was going to
be the prison superintendent,

I should have had a colleague
who was overseeing the experiment.

Who was in a position to stop it at any point.

Or I should've been the principal investigator

and get somebody who was going
to be the prison superintendent.

I realized that was a big mistake,
to play both those roles.

And by shifting back and forth.

[Narrator] After the experiment, Zimbardo
brought all the participants together

to talk about their experiences.

John Wayne would now come face to face

with the hunger striker that he had tormented.

[Eshleman] I was a little worried.

I said "Oh my god, he's really
gonna come down on me hard now."

Now that we're on equal footing.

[Ramsay] It harms me.

[Eshleman] How did it harm you?
How does it harm you?

Just to think ((cross talk)) you know
people can be like that?

[Ramsay] Yeah, it let me in
on some knowledge

that I've never experienced first hand.

Because I know what you can turn into,

I know what you're willing to do.

[Eshleman] When I look back on
it now, I behaved appallingly.

You know, it was just horrid to look at.

I think I tried to explain
to him that at the time,

what you experience and
what you hated so much

was a role that I was playing,
that's not me at all.

[Ramsay] He was trying to dissociate
himself from what he had done.

That did make me angry.

Everyone was acting out
a part and playing a role:

prisoners, guards, staff,

everyone was acting out a part.

It's when you start contributing
to the script,

that's you and thus it's something you
should take responsibility for.

[Eshleman] Uh, I didn't
see where it was really harmful.

It was degrading and that was part
of my particular little experiment

to see how I could--

[Ramsay] Your particular little experiment?!

Why don't you tell me about that.

[Eshleman] Yes, I was running...
I was running a little experiment of my own.

[Ramsay] Tell me about your
little experiments, I'm curious.

[Eshleman] I wanted to see what
kind of verbal abuse that people can take

before they start objecting,
before they start lashing back.

[Eshleman] If I have any regret, right now,

it's that I made that decision,
because it would've been interesting

to see what would have happened
had I not decided to force things.

It could be that I only accelerated them,
that the same things would've happened.

But we'll never know.

[Narrator] If the extreme nature of
Dave Eshleman's behavior tested the prisoners,

it also presented the other
guards with the choice:

to intervene, or not.

[Eshleman] It surprised me
that no one said anything to stop me.

They just accepted what I'd say.

And no one questioned
my authority at all.

And it really shocked me, why didn't
people say when I started to get so abusive?

I started to get so profane,
and still people didn't say anything.

[Zimbardo] There were a few guards who
hated to see the prisoners suffer,

they never did anything that
would be demeaning of the prisoners.

The interesting thing is, none
of the good guards ever intervened

in the behavior of the guards who gradually
became more and more sadistical over time.

We like to think there is this core of human
nature that good people can't do bad things.

And that good people will
dominate over bad situations.

In fact, one way to look
at this prison study is that

we put good people in an evil place

and we saw who won.

And the sad message in this case is,
the evil place won over the good people.

[Eshleman] It did show some very
interesting and maybe some unpleasant things

about human behavior.

It seems like every century,
every decade that we go through,

we're suffering the same kind of
atrocities and you need to understand

why these things happen,

you need to understand
why people behave like this.