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Douglas Korpi and eight others were once part of an experiment that can only be called "sinister" for its offbeat method and its allegedly unscientific approach. He was part of The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE), the infamous psychological experiment led by Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Korpi was the first one to get out of the prison simulation experiment after allegedly having a mental breakdown.
Korpi, the other prisoners, and the entire experiment is the subject of The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth, which will air on November 14, 2024, on Nat Geo. It will also be available for streaming later on Disney+ and Hulu.
Korpi signed up to be a volunteer after seeing an ad for the experiment in a newspaper. He was assigned the role of a prisoner as the experiment kicked off. He became the first mock prisoner to leave the cell after he had a mental breakdown within 36 hours of the experiment's start. He would later go on to claim that he left the experiment by faking a mental breakdown.
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Over 50 years after the incident, Korpi has lived a full life and seemingly now resides in Oakland, his last known address. Quite old now, he has stayed away from the limelight in the past few years. He has, time and again, given his opinions about the prison experiment he became a part of.
What happened to Douglas Korpi?
Douglas Korpi took part in the experiment conducted by Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo after finding the experiment in a newspaper. It paid $15 per day, which was a good amount of money back then. He was assigned as one of the prisoners with eight others, while nine others were assigned as prison guards.
The experiment kicked off on August 14, 1971, and things soon started turning more brutal for the mock prisoners as the mock guards got increasingly violent.
On the third day of the experiment, Douglas Korpi reportedly had a mental breakdown, which was also recorded on tape. He was heard saying he wanted out. Craig Haney, the research assistant on the project, saw this and decided to let him out just 36 hours after the project began.
In the 1992 documentary Quiet Rage: The Stanford Prison Experiment, Korpi claimed that he faked his breakdown to get out of the mock prison. He explained that he allegedly wanted to prepare for his Graduate Record Examination, and when he found out he was not allowed to study in the mock prison, he quit.
He also said his breakdown was more hysterical than psychotic. He later added that he regretted not filing a false imprisonment charge. Dr. Zimbardo later explained that he could not afford to treat the breakdown as fake and, hence, did not hold him any longer.
Douglas Korpi went on to become a clinical psychologist himself
Douglas Korpi claimed he faked his breakdown, but he never denied the impact the experiment had on him. He even went on to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and later worked as the chief psychologist in the San Francisco County Jail. He reportedly also worked as a forensic psychologist in Oakland.
He has reportedly been out of practice for a while and now resides in Oakland with his family. The current whereabouts of the ex-The Stanford Prison Experiment candidate are still unknown as he is quite old now and has been out of the limelight for the past few years.
The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unlocking the Truth will share more about Korpi and the experiment.
