In a well-known psychological study, participants assigned to the role of 'guards' in a simulated prison began to exhibit increasingly authoritarian and abusive behaviors within a few days. These actions included stripping 'prisoners', removing their mattresses as a form of punishment, and forcing them to perform degrading tasks. Analyze how these specific behaviors, beyond simple harassment, functioned to systematically establish a power imbalance and reinforce the assigned social roles within the simulated environment.