Netflix Looked at the Stanford Prison Experiment and Apparently Saw a Reality Show
Well, this sounds like a spectacularly bad idea.
Which, naturally, means I’m probably going to watch it.
Netflix’s The New Stanford Prison Experiment will put 30 willing participants inside a real prison, randomly assign them to be guards or prisoners, and see what happens when you give ordinary people authority over complete strangers.
Because apparently dating in pods wasn’t psychologically complicated enough.
The six-episode series premieres October 21, and its big question is simple: Does power corrupt?
I feel like we could save everybody some time by opening literally any history book, but sure. Let’s put cameras in a prison.
The series takes its inspiration from the infamous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, which examined power and behavior by assigning participants the roles of guards and prisoners. Even executive producer Jane Lipsitz acknowledges the original study’s serious ethical flaws.
And now we’re revisiting the premise as entertainment.
What could possibly go wrong?
According to Netflix’s description, the show will explore whether empathy, morality, and individuality can survive a system built around hierarchy and control. That’s an interesting question. Whether a reality show is equipped to answer it is another matter entirely.
Once people know they’re being filmed for Netflix, you’re also watching people decide who they want to be on television. And we’ve all seen how THAT goes.
Look, I’m curious. There could be something compelling here about how quickly people embrace authority—and what they’re willing to do once they have it.
But I’m going to need more than ominous music and dramatic editing before I start calling any of this science.
October 21. Netflix. Thirty participants. And hopefully a very well-staffed ethics department.
