Stanford prison experiment

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study done in 1971 at Stanford University by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. In this study, 24 college students were randomly divided into two different groups: 12 prisoners and 12 guards. They pretended to be either a prisoner or a guard in a simulated prison in a building of the Stanford University. The experiment was done to see what would happen when regular people were put into a situation where they had power over other people. The experiment went on for 6 days, and the results showed that the people in the guard role quickly became overly aggressive and abusive, while the people in the prisoner role became passive and obedient. The experiment showed that people can behave differently based on the roles they are put in.