The Stanford Prison Experiment commenced on Aug. 14, 1971, after university psychology professor Philip Zimbardo divided student volunteers into two groups comprised of 11 guards and 10 prisoners in order to see how they would behave on their own inside a fabricated “prison.”
The goal was to assess how quickly and intensely even educated and intelligent people can turn cruel and sadistic under the right conditions — and find out once and for all whether humans are inherently good or evil.
In just six days, before the experiment had to be called off, the “guards” had repeatedly abused and humiliated the “prisoners” by spraying them with fire extinguishers and forcing them to clean toilet bowls with their bare hands. The study and the creepiest photos left behind provide a chilling look at what humans are capable of.
