Conformity to social roles

-Mock prison set up in standford uni basement

-Volunteers psychologically and physically screened, 24 most stable were chosen

-Participants randomly split into guards and prisoners

-Participants were unexpectedly arrested, deloused, given a uniform and ID number. They had rights such as 3 meals a day 3 supervised toilet trips a day and 2 visets each week

-Guards were given a uniform, clubs, whistles and reflective glasses

-Zimbardo took on the role of prison superintedent

-The study was meant to last 2 weeks

-Over the first few days the guards became increasingly tyrannical and abbusive towards the prisoners

-Guards were so enthusiastic they volunteered to work extra days without pay

-Even when unawhere of being watched both gurds and prisoners conformed to their roles

-5 prisoners were realeased early due to their extream reactions

-The study shows the guards becoming increasingly tyrannical whilst the prisoners became more passive and accepting of there plight

-Zimbardo believed that the sadistic drift into abusiveness was an automatic consequence of them embracing their roles

-E.g. some guards were nice, even doing good things for the prisoners whilst not harrasing or abbusing them

-this shows that the guards were choosing how they behaved, rather than just blindly conforming to their roles

-Zimbardo believed that the sadistic drift into abusiveness was an automatic consequence of them embracing their roles

-E.g. some guards were nice, even doing good things for the prisoners whilst not harrasing or abbusing them

-this shows that the guards were choosing how they behaved, rather than just blindly conforming to their roles

-Banuazizi and Movahedi argued that the behavour of the guards was due to demand charcteristics and not their response to 'a compelling prison environment'

-Banuazizi and Movahedi presented the details of the experiment to a sample of students who had never heard of the experiment. The vast majority of the sample guessed the aim of the study and that the guards would act abbusively and the prisoners would be more passive

-The study was considered ethical because it followed the guidelines of standford university e.g. there was no deception

-Zimbardo achknowledged that the experiment should have ended sooner

-He tried to make up for it by fully debreifing the participants after severaly years and found no negative effects

-Zimbardo argued that the same conformity is apparent in the SPE is also present in Abu Ghaib (a military prison) notorious for torture and abuse

-Situational factors such as lack of training, boredom and no accountability to higher authority are both present in SPE and Abu Ghraib

-The situational factors combine with a missuse of power led to prioner abuse in both situations

-Real life applivation?

-Zimbardo concluded that the tyranning of the guards was a natural consequence of being allocated the role of guard and asserting the power that is associated with such a role

-Reicher and Haslam reject the premise that group behaviour is necciserally mindlss and tyrannical

-By contrast the BBC study suggests that the way members of a strong group behave depends on the vaules associated with their specific social identity