News only broke two weeks ago that Netflix had commissioned “The New Stanford Prison Experiment,” an unscripted reality series based on the notorious experiment.
Having already been shot, the streamer has now released the official trailer for the project. The first season will consist of six 45-minute episodes and is set to debut on the service on October 21st.
In the series, thirty willing participants enter a real prison and are randomly assigned as guards or prisoners.
Thrust into a system of power, hierarchy, and control, they’ll discover whether ordinary people inevitably conform to the roles they’re given – or whether empathy, morality, and individuality can withstand the forces pushing them in the opposite direction.
As the pressure builds and the balance of power begins to shift, the central question feels more urgent than ever: Does power corrupt?
Jane Lipsitz, Dan Cutforth, Nan Strait, Dan Volpe, Jeff Grogan, and Mike Odair executive produce.
The original Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted on the Stanford campus in 1971 led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. The aim was a two-week simulation of a prison environment to examine the effects of situational variables on participants’ reactions and behaviours.
The experiment was scrapped after just six days when those assigned to be guards began psychologically and physically abusing those assigned as prisoners, alongside other serious ethical concerns. It and other experiments like it led to the adoption of stricter rules to prevent harm to human participants
A film about the incident, “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” was released in 2015.
