The Stanford Prison Experiment Movie Examines Power, Social Organization, and Conflict

It all started with an ad in the paper, “Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks.” (Alvarez, 2015) The Stanford Prison Experiment film is a movie based on a true story about Stanford's Professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971 and his controversial psychology experiment in which college students pretend to be either prisoners or guards. As you watch the movie, you soon see how the experiment quickly gets out of hand. The movie takes place in the basement of Stanford University, which was turned into a mock prison. Each guard was given sunglasses and uniforms to wear to give the sense of authority. Each prisoner was given a number and a “jumpsuit” to give them a sense of prison.

Throughout the movie, I analyzed it and watched for how it related to cultural anthropology. The biggest anthological themes that I found throughout the film were, power structure of both the guards and prisoners, the social organization between both the guards and prisoners, as well as the conflicts that occurred. The characters in the movie had to use all of these things in order to “survive” in the mock prison. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? This is the question that comes to mind at the start of the film, and you learn its effect as you come to the conclusion of the film. Some might say it was inhumane, others would argue that it was all for research and learning. Where ever you lie on the issues, you first have to think about how this radical experiment opened the eyes of not only the participates, but the rest of the world that saw the film.

Cultural anthropologists make note of how customs of a culture change from place to place and how they may change over time, behavior in a culture is a huge factor, and analysis of The Stanford Prison Experiment reveals how small changes have a radical effect on a person’s culture and behavior. (Bernard & Gravlee, 2014)

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Anthropologists define power as the ability of individuals or groups to impose their will upon others and make them do things even against their own wants or wishes. (n.d.).  The Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrates how power can change not only the person in charge but also the with no power. In fact, in the movie they show how the power was chosen at random with a coin toss. One of the main characters Phil Zimbardo played by Billy Crudup, encouraged the guards to act like actual guards. (Alvarez, 2015) This made the power structure even more complicated for the prisoners. Just after a couple of day, the guards started to take matters into their own hands and started to force the prisoners to do things that they did not want to do. On the other side of thing is the prisoners.

They had to endure the trials and tribulations of the guards systematized torture. The prisoners became angry at first and revolted then later became passive and did what was told of them because of fear. Because of the way the guards misused their power, the prisoners were coming to a breaking point quickly. The power structure got so out of hand and fell apart so fast that the experiment was eventually cut short after just six days. The power structure in the film clearly shows how the shifts in power changed not only the prison culture but the behavior in the prison as well.

As I was watching the film, I noticed a lot of social organization. Social organization is classified as ways in which a society subdivides itself into smaller groups. (n.d.).  There was one scene in particular in the film where prisoner 8612 played by Ezra Miller and prisoner 819 played by Tye Sheridan are both placed in “the hole” and after a few hours they start talking about organizing a small group of prisoners to revolt against the guards. (Alvarez, 2015) All of the prisoners divided themselves into small groups in each cell and fought back in their own ways. Cell one took apart their bunks and barricaded themselves in their room.

Because of this uprising by the prisoners in cell one, the guards quickly organized themselves as riot responders and went to the rest of the cell to take their beds until cell one decided to end their strike. Cell two yell and argued with the guards as they tried to take apart their bunks. As for cell three, they decided to comply with the guard’s requests, and took apart their own bunks and gave them up willingly. I was crazy to see how each small group in each cell decided to react to the situations at hand, and each group organized themselves very differently.

In any situation, especially in fieldwork, we see conflicts arise in many different circumstances. The Stanford Prison Experiment was kind of like a type of fieldwork, in which the professor made up his own culture made up of guards and prisoners. Phil Zimbardo created circumstances that would happen in a real prison to see what sort of conflict would come about during the experiment. Phil brought in Jesse Fletcher who was played by Nelsan Ellis, who had spent 17 years’ in San Quentin to aid it the authentication of his made up prison. (Alvarez, 2015) Within just a few hours after all of the prisoners and guards entered the mock prison, conflict presented itself.

When the first prisoner was brought in, 8612, he thought light of the situation, laughing and making smart remarks. He soon came to realize how messed up everything was. He revolted against the guards and tried to start a revolution with the other prisoners. The other prisoners followed in prisoner 8612’s footsteps and began to clash with the guards. All in all the conflicted situations, that the prisoners were put through was brutal.

By the end of the film, I realized how important fieldwork and research is to anthropology. Even though the movie consisted of mostly a study of the psychological effects, I was still able to find the anthropological connections. Through power, social organizations, and conflict, there was an educational outcome of the experiment. Not only did we see radicle changes in the prison, but we also saw radical changes in the behavior of everyone who was involved. We as people, are able to see how a culture can change so rapidly when different circumstances happen within that culture.

Imagine what would happen if a power structure took over a small village somewhere, do you think the same type of outcome would come from the effects of the new power change. Ask the same question about social organization, or conflict. When you change the way people live, the very culture itself also changes, simple as that. From watching The Stanford Prison Experiment, I can see how change can effect a culture. This film was based on a true story, and I have studied the actual experiment in the past. I thought that the film was pretty darn close to the real thing, but actually watching it all unfold in front of me, made me realize just how fragile humankind really is.

References

1. Bernard, R. H., & Gravlee, C. C. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of methods in cultural anthropology. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
2. Alvarez, K. P. (Director). (2015). The Stanford Prison experiment [Film]. USA.
3. MindEdge, Inc. (n.d.). Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (Custom) (Latest ed.). Mindedge, Inc.

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