Editing Stanford prison experiment (section)

== Funding and methodology==
The official website of the SPE describes the experiment goal as follows:

{{blockquote|text=We wanted to see what the psychological effects were of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. To do this, we decided to set up a simulated prison and then carefully note the effects of this institution on the behavior of all those within its walls.<ref name="ArchivedOfficial">{{cite web|title=Slideshow on official site|url=http://www.prisonexp.org/slide-4.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000512020449/http://www.prisonexp.org/slide-4.htm|archive-date=May 12, 2000|website=Prisonexp.org|page=Slide 4}}</ref>}}

A 1996 article from the Stanford News Service described the experiment goal in a more detailed way:

{{blockquote|text=Zimbardo's primary reason for conducting the experiment was to focus on the power of roles, rules, symbols, group identity and situational validation of behavior that generally would repulse ordinary individuals. "I had been conducting research for some years on deindividuation, vandalism and dehumanization that illustrated the ease with which ordinary people could be led to engage in anti-social acts by putting them in situations where they felt anonymous, or they could perceive of others in ways that made them less than human, as enemies or objects," Zimbardo told the Toronto symposium in the summer of 1996.<ref name="spespa">{{cite web|url=http://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970108prisonexp.html|title=The Stanford Prison Experiment: Still powerful after all these years (1/97)|date=August 12, 1996|publisher=News.stanford.edu|access-date=July 12, 2018|quote=In the prison-conscious autumn of 1971, when George Jackson was killed at San Quentin and Attica erupted in even more deadly rebellion and retribution, the Stanford Prison Experiment made news in a big way. It offered the world a videotaped demonstration of how ordinary people, middle-class college students, and adult film stars can do things they would have never believed they were capable of doing. It seemed to say, as Hannah Arendt said of Adolf Eichmann, that normal people can take ghastly actions.|archive-date=November 18, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111118040323/http://news.stanford.edu/pr/97/970108prisonexp.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>}}

The study was funded by the [[US Office of Naval Research]] to understand [[anti-social behaviour|antisocial behavior]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=More Information|url=https://www.prisonexp.org/faq|access-date=August 19, 2021|website=Stanford Prison Experiment|language=en-US}}</ref> The [[United States Navy]] and the [[United States Marine Corps]] wanted to investigate conflict between military guards and prisoners.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Stanford Prison Experiment|url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-time-cure/201507/the-stanford-prison-experiment|access-date=August 19, 2021|website=Psychology Today|language=en}}</ref>

Criticism of the SPE still continues today. Many researchers have critiqued Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment for its method, whether it meets the criteria to be a scientific [[experiment]], and whether the guard orientation created a [[Demand characteristics|demand bias]].