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The Stanford Prison experiment was conducted by a psychology professor named Philip Zimbardo. It was supposed to be held for two weeks but in the end lasted for six days. An ad in the newspaper was posted looking for men in college. The ad stated that they would be paid fifteen dollars a day. The experiment would be a psychological study on prison life. Participants were separated and assigned at random either the role of a guard or of a prisoner.

The video lasted fifty-two minutes and I watched it twice to get a better understanding. I observed that the professor first met with the group given the role of guards and explained that they were not allowed to become violent with the prisoners but that they could test the prisoner's patience, driving them to frustration and leaving them to feel like they had no control. Missing from the video was footage showing us those that were chosen as prisoners being explained what the experiment would entail. It makes me question how upfront and honest the professor was with this group. "Psychologists seek to promote accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in the science, teaching, and practice of psychology" (Aronson et al., 2022).

The first day of the experiment showed it to be on track. Not long after, the prisoners begin to suffer at the cruelty put in place by the guards. The guards never physically hurt any of the prisoners but they were messing with them mentally. The point of an experiment is to see how far you can test something however in this case the guards were going overboard.

The experiment was beginning to take a turn where it was starting to feal to realistic. Prisoners were begging to quit and were being shamed for wanting to do so. The only reason the experiment was put to an end was because another student told the professor that what was being done to was terrible and traumatizing.

Deception in social psychological research involves misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that transpire. Like most experiments, leaders want to involve some form of deception to study the accuracy of how those involved will participate and react.