ZIMBARDO - conformity to social roles

STUDY: ZIMBARDO  

AIM: to investigate aggressive behaviour in us prisons, was it personality or conformity to social roles  

METHOD:  

• 21 emotionally stable men 
• randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards  
• prisoners were arrested, stripped  

Encouraged to conform by: 

-uniform            -instructions about behaviour   

Evaluation  

- Haslam and reicher, study found opposite results         

- lack of realism 

exxagerates social roles