THE NEW STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

The New Stanford Prison Experiment Asks Whether Power Changes Who We Are

More than 50 years after one of psychology's most controversial experiments, a new group of people is stepping inside a prison to revisit its biggest question:

Does power corrupt?

The New Stanford Prison Experiment is a six-episode Netflix unscripted series inspired by the infamous 1971 study that randomly assigned male college students to act as prisoners or guards inside a simulated prison environment.

The original experiment was intended to run for up to two weeks.

It was stopped after just six days.

The study became famous, and heavily criticized, for its ethical problems and methodology, eventually becoming a cautionary tale about psychological research as much as an examination of human behavior.

The new series isn't attempting to simply recreate it.

Instead, 30 willing participants from different backgrounds enter a real prison and are randomly assigned roles as either guards or prisoners.

Once inside, they're placed within a system built around hierarchy, rules and unequal power.

Will ordinary people begin conforming to the roles they've been given?

Or can empathy, morality and individual identity survive the pressure of the system around them?

Unlike the original study, the new experiment includes psychological screenings, 24-hour access to mental health professionals, continuous expert monitoring and a safe word allowing participants to leave at any time. The group also includes both men and women and was selected to represent a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.

The experiment is observed by experts from psychology, journalism and corrections as cameras document what happens around the clock with minimal interaction from the production team.

And according to the people behind the series, what unfolded wasn't necessarily what they expected.

The uniforms are different.

The rules are different.

The power definitely isn't equal.

The question is whether the people underneath all of that will remain the same.

All six episodes of The New Stanford Prison Experiment begin streaming October 21 , 2026 on Netflix.