Netflix's New Stanford Prison Experiment: creators explain finale as scholars revisit the 1971 study

Left · 2Netflix debuted "The New Stanford Prison Experiment", a six-episode reality series, on 21 October, re-staging Philip Zimbardo's 1971 study. 1 2 Left · 2The original study, run in August 1971 at Stanford, randomly assigned 24 male students to play guards or prisoners in a mock prison; it was meant to last two weeks but was stopped after six days because some guards had become cruel and some prisoners had broken down. 2 1 Left · 1The new version, from executive producers Jane Lipsitz and Dan Cutforth, put thirty participants of varied racial, geographical and economic backgrounds, including three women, into a decommissioned cell block of a working prison for a two-week simulation; eight were guards and 22 prisoners. 1

Left · 1Unlike in 1971, the show used safeguards: background checks and psychological testing, informed consent, medics, psychologists and off-duty guards on call 24/7, and a safe word, "pineapple". Three experts observed: Alison Wood Brooks, journalist Trymaine Lee and former federal corrections officer Michael Cantrell. 1 Left · 1Five participants left during the experiment, the first being Larry Foy, a former convict nicknamed "Scary Larry", who was severely triggered by the prison setting; Lipsitz said nobody expected that effect but that he could choose to leave. 1 Left · 1By day six the experiment nearly unravelled when prisoners Pete and Brandon were put in "23 and 1" (23 hours locked in their cell, one hour outside) for conspiring against the guards; Brandon nearly quit but stayed after a phone call with his mother. Lipsitz said the producers had thought it would end on the same day as the original. 1

Left · 1Producers also introduced four phases: Transformation, Hierarchy, Role-Reversal and Self-Governance. In Role-Reversal, the most punished inmates became guards and the most power-obsessed guards became inmates; guard Chet Hudson quit after a day, and three female guards led by Laura Berens stepped in when inmates came close to attacking Pete and Brandon. 1 Left · 1In the final Self-Governance phase all rules were dropped; although some inmates wanted to stay, comedian Mike Paramore persuaded Chris Lee that the prisoners should walk out together arm-in-arm, ending the experiment on day 13. Lipsitz said the producers "did not see that coming at all". 1 Left · 1Cutforth said he would hesitate to draw conclusions about race and gender but that the show "holds up a mirror" to those issues. Lipsitz said the men, without phones or alcohol, bonded and learned from each other. Both hope for a second season, possibly with women. 1

Left · 1In The Conversation, psychologist David Kaposi of the Open University notes the Stanford and Milgram studies have been called a sham or fraud, and that Retraction Watch has hosted an argument for retracting the Stanford paper. 2 Left · 1He cites researcher Thibault Le Texier's 2019 analysis of the Stanford archive, which argued Zimbardo's team instructed the guards on how to behave and that some prisoners later said they exaggerated their distress, though he adds that Zimbardo disclosed some of this himself in his 2007 book The Lucifer Effect. 2 Left · 1Kaposi describes the rival "engaged followership" explanation from Alex Haslam and Stephen Reicher, who ran the 2002 BBC prison study in which guards did not spontaneously turn cruel; he says it has numerous critics. He argues the studies endure because they show ordinary people freely choosing evil when they could choose good. 2