Hypothesis: The situation in which the participants will be placed will influence their behavior. Participants: The research team offered $15 per day in a newspaper ad for a study on the psychology of imprisonment. More than 75 people responded to the ad, but only 24 students were chosen: 12 to play prisoners and 12 to play guards. These students had no criminal arrest history, medical conditions, drug abuse, or psychological disorders. Methods: A few years ago I took part in a study on the psychology of imprisonment. Unexpectedly, the police arrested me at my home. I was handcuffed, searched, read my rights and taken in a police car to the police station. Even though I knew it was an experiment, they made me feel like I had actually done something against the law. The judge charged me with burglary. They immediately gave me a uniform on which my ID number was written. I was forced to wear it without underwear. I felt really humiliated as well as anonymous. When I entered my cell I saw that all the guards were wearing the same uniforms. I knew the guards would try to act like real guards, but they took their job too seriously. Already from the first day they had not only woken us up in the middle of the night with whistles, but they had also forced us to do push-ups for no reason. On the second day we decided to have a rebellion. We took off our hats, tore off our numbers and placed the beds against the door so the clouds wouldn't reach us. We made the guards very angry. They took a fire extinguisher and forced us to move away from the doors. Therefore they managed to penetrate every cell. They punished us by stripping naked and taking away our beds. The leaders of ... middle of paper ...... hostile, arbitrary and inventive in their forms of humiliation of prisoners, also fully enjoyed the power they wielded. I think I'd rather be a mix between the fair guards who followed the prison rules and the "good guys" who did little favors for the prisoners and never punished them. Actually the task was to represent how real guards behave, so I don't see why the guards started behaving badly. Of course if they had to deal with murderers making trouble in their cells like real guards do, they should follow the prison rules but they should never be driven by boredom to commit pornographic and degrading abuse on prisoners as they did. in this experiment. In the end, if I were a real guard I would never enjoy seeing others suffer; so I don't see the point in the behavior of the chosen volunteers.