Conformity: Zimbardo's research

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE)
Following reports of police brutality in prisons across America in the alte 1960s, Phillip Zimbardo wanted to answer the question of whether guards behave brutally because they have sadistic personalities or whether the situation creates such behaviour

Procedure
Zimbardo set up a mock prison and used student volunteers, selecting those who were deemed 'emotionally stable' after psychological testing. The students were randomly assigned to the role of guard or prisoner and the 'prisoners' were arrested in their homes. The social roles of the prisoners and guards were strictly divided and the guards had complete…