How BBC recreated a highly controversial 1974 psychology prison experiment to test human obedience

The BBC once revisited the Stanford Prison Experiment through a controlled 2002 prison simulation to test how authority forms under structured conditions. While Zimbardo’s original study suggested roles alone could drive conformity and tyranny, the BBC experiment found authority depended more on group identity and cohesion, with guards struggling and prisoners resisting. Both studies remain influential but limited by lack of ecological validity.