Stanford prison experiment

The Stanford prison experiment was an infamous psychological experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo et al in 1971. Since condemned for its unethical treatment of the participants, it demonstrated 'what happens when you put good people in an evil place'.

Setup
The experiment was advertised through an advert in a local newspaper. It read: 'Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life: $15 per day for 1-2 weeks beginning Aug. 14. For further information & applications, come to room 248, Jordan Hall, Stanford U.' Around 70 students replied to the advert, which was further narrowed down via a series of interviews to just 24, after criminals and those with medical conditions had been removed. These were divided on the toss of a coin into two groups of 12, one group being prisoners, the others being guards. The prison was created by closing off a section of corridor in Stanford University. The doors were altered. The corridor linking the 'cells' was the only place prisoners were allowed to walk, eat, or exercise. A video camera was positioned at one end of the corridor, and a small closet served as 'solitary confinement'. No windows or clocks were extant, resulting in some alterations to the body clocks of the prisoners.

Arrival of the prisoners
The prisoners were taken from their homes and were kept blindfolded in a real prison for a little while before being transferred to the fake prison. They were introduced to the wardens individually, and then sprayed and strip-searched. The prisoners were then issued with a smock, which they wore with no underclothes almost continually. It had their number on both sides. A heavy chain was bolted around their foot. These were used to emasculate the participants. The number was used to refer to the prisoners. They shared cells with other prisoners.

Arrival of the guards
The guards had little instruction in how to discipline the prisoners. They came up with their own rules. They worked in shifts of eight hours, with three working at the time. They started asserting their authority by waking them during the night for the purpose of reciting their prisoner numbers, and making them do push-ups for infractions of the rules.