ethical issues with prison experiment

What is Psychology?

Answers to Your Psychology Questions

What are the Zimbardo Prison Experiment Ethical Issues?

Although Zimbardo intended the experiment to last two weeks, it was abruptly halted after only six days due to the increasingly disturbing behavioral traits being exhibited by the “prisoners” and “prison guards”.

At the time, the Stanford Prison Experiment caused a great deal of controversy and was heavily criticized, but what are the Zimbardo prison experiment ethical issues and was criticism of the experiment justified?

Any experiment that places its participants under enormous psychological stress could be considered unethical. The same also applies to any experiment where the participants are physically harmed. So why was the Stanford Prison Experiment allowed to continue when the participants were psychologically traumatized and physically beaten?

One of the biggest criticisms of the Stanford Prison Experiment is the length of time it took Zimbardo to halt the experiment, despite overwhelming evidence showing that even by the second day conditions inside the replica prison had begun to seriously unravel.

Indeed, by the third day, a riot had broken out and one of the prisoners was beginning to show the symptoms of severe psychological stress. It was not long before the situation rapidly worsened as the behavior of the prison guards became increasingly sadistic and more prisoners succumbed to psychological stress.

But despite overwhelming evidence pointing to the immorality of the experiment, it was not until Zimbardo’s girlfriend of the time, graduate student Christine Maslach, expressed concerns about the conditions inside the prison that the experiment was aborted.

Not surprisingly, many critics believe that Zimbardo should have halted his experiment as soon as the first physical altercation between a prison guard and prisoner took place.

What are the Zimbardo Prison Experiment Ethical Issues and Would the Same Experiment be Allowed to Take Place Today?

Right from the start of the Stanford Prison Experiment there were ethical issues at stake. The participants were not given all the facts about what exactly they were signing and consent forms were not properly completed.

Although the participants were informed they would be taking part in a mock prison experiment, it would have come as a complete shock to be arrested at home and strip searched upon entry into the prison — and strip searching without consent is a complete violation of rights.

Better safeguards should have been put in place to protect the participants from potential risks. Neutral observers should also have been present at all times to prevent the experiment from getting out of hand—as it so clearly did do.

However, despite the storm of criticism faced by Zimbardo in the wake of his controversial prison experiment, some of the lessons learned were later applied to real life prison situations.

What are the Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance? What are the cognitive consequences of forced compliance? Or to put it another way, does a person’s private opinion change if he is forced to say something that contradicts that opinion? This type of behavior was first discussed in the paper Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance written by eminent psychologists,...
What are the Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison? What are the interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison? The psychological effects of a simulated prison are an interesting area of study and one that was explored in a highly controversial psychological experiment known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. In 1971, Professor Philip Zimbardo came up with the idea of...
Stanford Prison Experiment Summary The Stanford Prison Experiment Summary is a famous psychology experiment that was designed to study the psychological impact of becoming a prison guard or prisoner. The experiment was conducted by Professor of Psychology, Philip Zimbardo, at Stanford University in 1971. Although it was originally intended to last for two weeks,...