In August 1971, Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University ran a planned two-week simulation of prison life, recruiting college men who were randomly assigned as prisoners or guards. Guards were given uniforms and told to keep prisoners from escaping, and the study began when the prisoners were arrested by real police. Abuse by some guards escalated over five days, and Zimbardo ended the study on the sixth day after a psychologist challenged the conditions. He concluded that the situation roles had shaped behaviour. Later critics argued the guards were coached and that the results were shaped in advance, claims that Zimbardo disputed.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.