In 1971, volunteers entered a mock prison basement and sparked one of psychology’s biggest debates

The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971, serves as a pivotal case study in understanding the effects of authority and social roles on behavior. Once regarded as irrefutable evidence of the ...
Psychology Today

How Do You Get Psychology Experiments to Work?

Researchers use small tricks to get experiments to work. Source: Photo by Kyle Loftus from Pexels. How do you get a psychology experiment to work? A new paper in the journal Collabra: Psychology by ...

In 1971, a group of students played guards and prisoners - and created psychology’s most debated experiment

A 1971 Stanford University prison simulation, once hailed as proof of inherent human cruelty under authority, is now understood differently. Modern analysis reveals researcher manipulation and a lack ...