Contested — archival re-analysis found demand characteristics and coaching of guards (Le Texier 2019)
Relative Scale in Studies
Participants
24 male students
Core Principles & Analysis
Twenty-four male students, screened from more than seventy volunteers, were split into guards and prisoners; the planned two weeks ended after six days.
Le Texier's 2019 archival review in American Psychologist documented biased recording, demand characteristics, and guard coaching.
The study remains a standard case in research ethics, shaping informed-consent and debriefing rules.