History Main / StanfordPrisonExperiment

* The 2015 film ''Film/TheStanfordPrisonExperiment,'' dramatic reenactment of the original event.

* ''Series/{{Life}}'': In an episode, the {{Victim Of The Week}} was a "guard" in one of these. The professor who was running it did it every semester for 5 days using college students.
* ''Series/{{Sabrina The Teenage Witch}}'': One episode had her class simulate the Salem Witch Trials and of course Sabrina ends up getting persecuted by her classmates, led by the AlphaBitch. [[spoiler:In the final twist, while the "witch" role was supposedly non-existent (the whole point of the simulation, the teacher said, was to prove the paranoia of the Salem trials), Sabrina finds her assigned role's paper in the final seconds of the episode (losing it is what allowed Libby to exploit the paranoia to pester her)... and sure enough, it says "witch".]]

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an infamous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration.

* The American remake of ''Das Experiment'', ''The Experiment,'' pretty much says HumansAreBastards.
* The 2015 film ''The Stanford Prison Experiment,'' dramatic reenactment of the original event.

* Series/ManorHouse'': Several participants eventually BecameTheMask, most of them belonging to the privileged upstairs. For instance, John, playing the roll of a newly-knighted nouveau riche, becomes arrogant, assuring himself constantly that he is a benevolent employer who understands the hardships downstairs is going through and absolutely ''hates'' to add to their burdens, while at the same time being unyielding, unsympathetic, demanding and bigoted to them and others, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his personal opinions are starting to sound increasingly dismissive and self-entitled--at one point, his servants overhear him saying there are three levels of society, the knobs, the scutter, and the dregs (the latter referring to the servants), and he even tells his sister-in-law that he thinks educating women is a waste of money. However his wife, Dr. Anna Oliff-Cooper, is possibly the most extreme example. A modern, well-educated, capable, intelligent medical doctor in the beginning, but after just three months of living the life of an upper-crust Edwardian society woman... it's like she's been brainwashed. It gets just a tad eerie.

[[folder:Film]]
* German movie ''Film/DasExperiment'', which recreates the original Stanford experiment - but goes further. Things don't end well.
* The American remake of ''Das Experiment'', ''The Experiment,'' pretty much says HumansAreBastards.
* The 2015 film ''The Stanford Prison Experiment,'' dramatic reenactment of the original event.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''When I Was Ming the Merciless'' by Creator/GeneWolfe invokes this trope, apparently being set in the aftermath of a particularly brutal large scale version of the experiment in a school. While the Stanford experiment is never mentioned, it is Wolfe's style to expect his readers to be familiar with it.
* ''Literature/TheOverstory'': Douglas Pavlicek participated in the original experiment during his youth, helping to shape him as a person throughout the rest of his life as he's haunted by how much of a useless bystander he was.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': In a possibly related example, The Doctor attempts to learn about family relationships by creating a home life in the holodeck with a holographic wife and kids. He ends up getting really emotionally invested in it, to the point where [[spoiler: when his holo-daughter dies, he's absolutely heartbroken]].

* ''Literature/TheOverstory'': Douglas Pavlicek participated in it during his youth, helping to shape him as a person throughout the rest of his life as he's haunted by how much of a useless bystander he was.

* ''Series/{{Sabrina The Teenage Witch}}'': One episode had her class simulate the Salem Witch Trials and of course Sabrina ends up getting persecuted by her classmates, led by the AlphaBitch.

* ''Series/TheColony'': This show has a psychology expert who frequently describes how the fake postapocalyptic scenario is being treated as real by the contestants.

Eventually, when Christina Maslach, a graduate student object asked to conduct interviews with the test subjects, objected to the appalling conditions of the experiment (Zimbardo would later notice that out of the 50 people who had observed the experiment, Maslach had been the ''only one'' who initially questioned the morality of it), Zimbardo realized that not only had the situation begun to spin rapidly out of control, he himself had also unintentionally assumed a role of his own and was starting to act more as a warden than a researcher, leading him to decide that the experiment had to be stopped. And so the entire experiment was shut down after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

Eventually, when Christina Maslach, a graduate student object asked to conduct interviews with the test subjects, objected to the appalling conditions of the experiment (Zimbardo would later notice that out of the 50 people who had observed the experiment, Maslach had been the only one who initially questioned the morality of it), Zimbardo realized that not only had the situation begun to spin rapidly out of control, he himself had also unintentionally assumed a role of his own and was starting to act more as a warden than a researcher, leading him to decide that the experiment had to be stopped. And so the entire experiment was shut down after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration. Eventually Zimbardo realized that not only had the situation begun to spin rapidly out of control, he himself had also unintentionally assumed a role of his own and was starting to act more as a warden than a researcher, leading him to decide that the experiment had to be stopped. And so the entire experiment was shut down after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration. Eventually Zimbardo realized that not only was the situation starting to spin out of control, he himself had also unintentionally assumed a role of his own and was starting to act more as a warden than a researcher, leading him to decide that the experiment had to be stopped. And so the entire experiment was shut down after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration. Eventually Zimbardo realized that he himself had also unintentionally assumed a role of his own, and was starting to act more as a warden than a researcher, leading him to decide that the experiment had to be stopped. And so the entire experiment was shut down after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment performed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration. The entire experiment had to be stopped after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* One season 8 episode of ''{{Castle}}'' played this completely straight - a local psychology professor, with the help of the US military, was running an unauthorized dungeon/torture chamber with students playing both parts. It's discovered when one of the students is murdered trying to escape.

* German movie ''Das Experiment'', which recreates the original Stanford experiment - but goes further. Things don't end well.

[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''When I Was Ming the Merciless'' by Creator/GeneWolfe invokes this trope, apparently being set in the aftermath of a particularly brutal large scale version of the experiment in a school. While the Stanford experiment is never mentioned, it is Wolfe's style to expect his readers to be familiar with it.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment is a famous psych experiment preformed by Philip Zimbardo where volunteers were split into groups of "guards" and "prisoners". While both sides knew it was fake, [[BecomingTheMask they quickly began treating it as though it was real]], with both groups spontaneously falling into their "roles". The "guards" (and researchers) quickly became abusive and sadistic, while the "prisoners" attempted to riot and showed symptoms associated with long-term incarceration. The entire experiment had to be stopped after six days (it was originally planned to last two weeks), and is often used as an example of psychological research that cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.

* ''When I Was Ming the Merciless'' by Creator/GeneWolfe invokes this trope, apparent being set in the aftermath of a particularly brutal large scale version of the experiment in a school. While the Stanford experiment is never mentioned, it is Wolfe's style to expect his readers to be familiar with it.