The New Stanford Prison Experiment | Official Trailer | Netflix
The New Stanford Prison Experiment is a Netflix reality series in which 30 participants enter a real prison and are randomly assigned as guards or prisoners. It follows how power, hierarchy, empathy a
A Role Experiment Beginning in a Real Prison
*The New Stanford Prison Experiment* is a reality series that places 30 participants in a real prison before randomly assigning them to the roles of guards and prisoners. Given only their designated roles, the participants are placed in an environment governed by hierarchy and control, while the program follows how their relationships and judgments change within it.
The Clash Between Roles and Individuality
The central question posed by the series is how far a role can change a person's behavior. According to the official description, as pressure builds and the balance of power shifts, the participants must confront whether they will conform to their assigned positions or preserve their empathy, morality, and individuality. Rather than simply observing one side's reactions, the series' key feature is that it shows the power imbalance created between the two roles—guards and prisoners—as they interact with each other.
A New Format for a Controversial Experiment
The title references the widely known Stanford prison experiment, but this work is a modern reimagining carried out by new participants in a real prison. The Netflix Media Center also introduces executive producer Jane Lipsitz's view that the original experiment had serious ethical flaws. Thus, rather than reproducing the past experiment as it was, this series revisits the relationship between power and ethical choices in a reality-TV format.