History Main / StanfordPrisonExperiment

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

* ''Manga/FrankenFranFrantic'': Chapter 37, "Forbidden Experiment" has Fran's class recreate the experiment as a school project, with their classmate Akari being in charge. Naturally, everything devolves into chaos, with the class devolving into beating and raping each other by the time the week is over, and Fran being murdered at the end. The audience of students, parents, and teachers are horrified at the results when they're presented at the school festival, and Akari tries to downplay it as simple human nature, fake crying the whole time. Then Fran strolls onto the stage. [[spoiler:The rest of the class was faking the entire thing, as ''[[LockedOutOfTheLoop everyone but Akari]]'' was aware that the original experiment was also a sham. They all decided to secretly make the experiment an analysis of ''her'' behavior, revealing that she immediately went mad with power as soon as she thought there would be zero accountability for her actions, trying to stir up as much violence between the groups as possible for her own entertainment, and rejecting every plea for the experiment to be stopped.]] Fran then asks for the audience not to judge her too harshly, [[IronicEcho as it is just human nature]].

* German movie ''Film/DasExperiment'', which recreates the original Stanford experiment - but goes further. Things don't end well.
* The American remake of ''Das Experiment'', ''Film/TheExperiment,'' pretty much says HumansAreBastards.
* The 2015 film ''Film/TheStanfordPrisonExperiment,'' a dramatic reenactment of the original event starring Creator/BillyCrudup as Zimbardo and Creator/OliviaThirlby playing his fiancee Christina Maslach (who's a psychology student), who realizes that he's gone too far (she's the OnlySaneMan at first).

* ''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.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': One episode had a psychology class running the Stanford Prison Experiment in Veronica's university, though it doesn't turn out quite the same way. While the "Guards" quickly assume their roles, the "Prisoners" manage to use their brains to mess with the "Guards".

** Episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E09Debate109 Debate]]" had Jeff referencing this very trope to argue that "man is evil".
** Episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E19BeginnerPottery Beginner Pottery]]" involved several of the cast members taking a week-long sailing course. The sailboat was in the parking lot, but that didn't stop them from abandoning someone who fell overboard because that's what the teacher wanted.
* ''Series/{{Life|2007}}'': In an episode, the VictimOfTheWeek was a "guard" in one of these. The professor who was running it did it every semester for 5 days using college students.
* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': 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".]]
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E21RealLife Real Life]]": 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]].
* One season 8 episode of ''Series/{{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.
* ''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.
--> '''Lady Oliff-Cooper''' ''(in reference to her young son, Guy)'': And I was thinking to myself: 'He mustn't get too close to the servants'. Because eventually when he inherits the house, he'll have to stand his distance as the lord and master. And then I thought to myself: 'Oh dear, how ridiculous'. Of course because this isn't all for real, in three months time we go back home again. But for just that brief moment, this seemed completely real.
* ''Rasen'', the second season of ''[[Literature/TheRing Ring: The Final Curse]]'', featured a Japanese spin on the experiment - except it was done with children. Seven boys were placed into the role of criminals and a lone warden, who developed a sadistic side, severely traumatising the others, leading to two committing suicide. The warden grows up to become a manipulative criminal called the "King of Terror".

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'': The Vaults were meant to provoke a Stanford Prison type of environment. Each with their own means of starting an experiment.

** It's revealed that the lower levels of the Combine forces, "Civil Protection" are completely unmodified humans, who initially join for the added rations and other benefits. The position of power, anonymity and [[PoliceBrutality access to stun-sticks]] does the rest of work turning them into a bunch of sociopathic thugs.
** The beta took this one step further: there would have been an arcade, wherein the NPC players controlled [[ChainsawGood manhack drones hunting down refugees.]] The citizens are just too apathetic to care.

* Mentioned by name in ''Webcomic/JoeVsElanSchool'', as the narrator compares the experiment's guardian and prisoner roles to those of Elan School. Except, as the narrator points out, Zimbardo's experiment had to be cut short after 6 days because it got out of hand, whereas Elan School ran uninterrupted for ''41 years''.

* ''LightNovel/SagaOfTanyaTheEvil'': The man who would become Tanya learned about the Stanford Prison Experiment in college. Based on the experiment, he developed a cynical attitude about the world, believing that a person's actions are based more on their social position than their actual personality and that anyone with power will be quick to abuse it.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an infamous psych experiment performed in 1971 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.

While many people know of the experiment, few realize how little it proves. The experiment was tainted by a combination of selection bias, insufficient controls, a small sample population, various methodological flaws, and not noting the personalities of guards before the experiment began (there was no attempt to discern if an evil guard was always sadistic, or only became sadistic during the experiment). Zimbardo dedicated much of his career to the promotion of the idea that [[RousseauWasRight bad environments drive bad behavior]], and it's no coincidence that this study proved exactly that.

While many people know of the experiment, few realize how little it proves. The experiment was tainted by a combination of selection bias, insufficient controls, a small sample population, various methodological flaws, and not noting the personalities of guards before the experiment began (there was no attempt to discern if an evil guard was always sadistic, or only became sadistic during the experiment). Zimbardo dedicated much of his career to the promotion of the idea that bad environments drive bad behavior, and it's no coincidence that this study proved exactly that.