Compléter Stanford Experiment_1Version en ligne Hot Topics 3, ch. 1, reading 3 par Tatiana Muchnick 1 In August , 1971 , a psychologist at Stanford University began a . Philip Zimbardo ? s was to the of being a prison guard or prisoner . The in the study were all . Seventy - five men to a newspaper advertisement offering to pay them $15 a day . All the respondents a questionnaire about their family background , physical and mental health , prior work experience , and toward crime . The chose the 24 most mature and mentally healthy volunteers . They were all white , male , and mostly middle class . None of them knew each other before the study . The researchers decided which ones would be the prisoners and which ones would be the guards .