REVEALED: The infamous Stanford Prison Experiment – where students acting as guards stripped inmates and made them perform sex acts – was actually a FAKE
But Dr Philip Zimbardo, who set up the experiment, insists it was all real
IT was the most infamous psychological experiment - where students playing at guards and prisoners showed how decent humans could quickly descend into evil.
During just six days inside a mocked up correctional facility at Stanford University in the United States the guards turned into vicious thugs who stripped the prisoners naked, swore and spat at them and encouraged degrading sexual acts.
The shock tactics caused two prisoners to quit due to painful breakdowns and others were left emotionally scarred by the experience.
When news of the campus cruelty emerged back in 1971 people were shocked that well educated young men could act so barbarically.
It turned traditional thinking on its head, convincing a generation of psychologists that an environment could influence a person’s action as much as their personality.
But 45 years on, with a movie based on the events out, the most sadistic guard claims he faked the whole thing.
Dave Eshelman told The Sun he got bored because nothing was happening on day one and he decided to shake things up.
The 63-year-old father-of-three from California revealed: “I deliberately went into a role playing exercise because I was under the impression as an 18 year-old kid that somebody needed to get this experiment to show some results.
“I thought the results they were looking for was that prison was a bad environment and so I determined I would make it as bad an environment as I could.
“It became an experiment for me to see how far I could take things before somebody would stop me.”
But none of the student ‘prisoners’ ever did stop him - even though they were free to leave at any time.
Eshelman put on a mean Southern accent, deprived prisoners of sleep, stood on one’s back, made them do press ups and pretend to be camels humping each other.
He admitted: “I definitely came down real hard on those folks, thinking at the time that I wasn’t doing anyone any harm.”
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According to Eshelman the participants knew where the video camera lenses were placed and could hear the researchers talking behind the walls.
They would have known it wasn’t real.
He claimed: “People were playing for the camera.”
Surprisingly, none of the university staff stepped in to help the abused students.
Eshelman recalls: “We didn’t get any instructions to do any of this.
“But nobody was challenging me in any way, nobody was telling me to stop.”
Mortgage broker Eshelman insisted he’s not a bad guy, assuring: “That character I was playing is completely different from the person I am in real life.
“I am non-violent and non-confrontational.”
People are so offended by what he did he still receives hate mail, as concerns have been reignited by the release of a film, called The Stanford Prison Experiment.
Eshelman revealed: “People who don’t know me fear I am a psychopath and send me hate mail.
“Even today, 45 years later. Now the movie has come out, people have managed to find my email address and sent me hate mail, you sick whatever.”
But Dr Philip Zimbardo, who set up the controversial experiment, insists it was all real.
When I told him Eshelman claimed he was just acting, the 83-year-old academic replied: “That’s interesting, 45 years later he says that.
“By saying it he’s just excusing it, he’s saying he was just pretending. The whole point of the study is that you start playing a character and you become that.
“The actor who played Dave in the movie says he couldn’t have kept up the act for so long.”
Funded by the US Navy and Marines, the Stanford Prison Experiment was supposed to examine what causes conflict between prisoners and guards.
An ad was placed in a newspaper offering £12 a day to volunteers and 24 were selected, supposedly screening out those with criminal records or psychological problems.
After selecting the participants roles out of a hat, the prisoners were arrested, stripped down on arrival and did not know what time of day it was.
They wore plain frocks and their names were replaced by numbers to remove the sense of individuality.
The guards only had to work eight hour long shifts, but the prisoners were there the whole time moving between replica cells and a dining room in the corridor.
The authenticity was heightened by a visiting day for relatives and parole hearings.
The experiment was stopped eight days early when Zimbado’s girlfriend Christina Maslach, now his wife, intervened.
Zimbardo lost sight of student safety, a prisoner went on hunger strike and there was an attempted break out.
The escape ring leaders were strong armed into a broom cupboard, while the other prisoners had their mattresses removed so they couldn’t sleep properly.
He recalled: “She came down and saw terrible things and started tearing up and we had this massive argument in front of the psychology department at 11 o’clock at night.
“She says ‘I don’t understand how you can’t see what I saw and not be upset. You are a caring person and students are suffering and you are responsible.’
“She said ‘I don’t know who you are. I don’t know if I want to continue our romantic relationship.' That was the wake up call.”
Zimbardo concluded his experiment showed that it was the environment - the prison setting and rules - which caused the breakdown rather than the prisoner’s personalities.
He believes good people can quickly turn to evil acts and that message is even more relevant today.
Zimbardo concluded: “Here we are 45 years later and it’s more important than ever because we see so many people doing terrible things.
“The general view is that all of our decisions are formed internally, we choose to do something, but we ignore the powerful influence other people have upon us.”
But Eshelman wishes he hadn’t played up for the camera and had instead let the situation evolve naturally.
He said remorsefully: “My regret is that I took it upon myself to force the action, because it would have been more interesting to see what would have happened if I had not.”
The Stanford Prison Experiment is available to own on Blu ray and DVD today.