Dumb question - I read about this on Wikipedia and it said that the guards abused the prisoners and made them go without food & bathroom breaks, made them take off their clothes, and do all sorts of humiliating things.
Why didn't the test subjects quit the experiment? $15.00 a day isn't worth being treated like a real prisoner.
Or is it?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Because they were badly mentally abused to the point they actually believed they were prisoners and couldn't leave.
shareBut that $15 equals $85.34 today, which is quite a good salary for a student.
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Well, initially prisoner 8612 tried to quit and was essentially pressured to stay (in the experimenter's mind, him leaving would cause more problems and the experimenter claims he believed he was faking his level of distress). He went back in and basically told everyone that he asked to leave and they wouldn't let him. This caused a major panic and kind of *beep* with the minds of young men who were already being mistreated, were disrupted sleep schedules, etc. You'll see the confusion in the movie. Prisoner 8612 was later released when it became clear that he wasn't faking his reaction.
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