BBC Prison Experiment: Group dynamics and agency

Shifting focus, in 2002, Stephen Reicher and Alexander Haslam collaborated with the BBC to conduct a prison experiment under strict ethical oversight, offering a counterpoint to the SPE. Unlike Zimbardo, they avoided active participation, establishing a negotiated power structure between prisoners and guards (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). As a result, guards hesitated to exert authority, and prisoners united to challenge them, leading to a system breakdown—contrary to Zimbardo's findings.

The BBC study showed that individuals retain agency to shape situations and that group failure, not group power, enables tyranny (Reicher & Haslam, 2006, p. 33). Conducted in England with adult participants and televised, its cultural context differed from the SPE's American college setting, contributing to divergent outcomes (Haslam et al., 2019).