It all begins as a study on the psychology of prison life led by Stanford psychology professor Dr. Philip Zimbardo. 24 volunteers - 12 guards and 12 prisoners - have agreed to spend the next two weeks recreating life in a correctional facility. Normal people can become monsters, given the right situation, that's the standard narrative of the Stanford Prison Experiment, one of the most famous psychological experiments of all time.
But what if the cause of its participants' cruel behavior wasn't what we've always been told?

Completely proving something can be difficult, if not impossible. So instead, we have the faith of the believer, the confidence interval of the scientist. What we think we know, we really only believe we know.
On this episode of Mind Field, we are going to take a look at a kind of lie we tell ourselves. And we are going to use belief to turn a lie... into a truth.

In 1949, after decades of making wooden furniture and toys, Ole Kirk Christiansen's small factory in Billund, Denmark, moved to plastic and created the 'Automatic Binding Bricks', which would later be known as LEGO. When the company patented the tube system in 1958, LEGO became the dominant toy line worldwide throughout the 1960s and 1970s. When other competitors capitalized on the expiration of the company's patents in the 1980s, LEGO faced stiff competition until they reported their first loss in 1998. Poor business decisions with film licenses and the failure of the Jack Stone and Galidor lines brought LEGO to near-bankruptcy until Jørgen Vig Knudstorp took over the company and, by bringing it back to its roots, rejuvenated LEGO's profits.
By the time The Lego Movie hit theaters in 2014, LEGO became the largest toy franchise in the world.

From virtually the moment we're born, there's a story that's preached across cultures and continents. It's a familiar fairy tale, that finding one true love is the key to a fulfilled and happy life. As an adult, we're forced to reconcile the messaging on monogamy with one simple fact: humans are terrible at it.
What do biology, human history and the promiscuity of bonobos reveal about monogamy? Experts and everyday couples weigh in on shifting cultural norms.

Human society is incredibly complex, and the duelling forces pushing us to conform and also to express our individuality are both necessary. Other people can influence us in good ways and in not-so-good ways.
Michael Stevens takes a look into the human urge to conform and just how strong it is against our own beliefs and sense of selves.

Our relationship with destruction is not a simple one. It can release endorphins and relax our minds. It can amp us up and make us even more aggressive. It can even help us regulate our emotional reactions. Can violently breaking things calm us down? Or does it simply anger us more? Find out as Michael Stevens takes a look into our urge to destroy.