Key Study : The Stanford Prison Experiment - Conformity to Social Roles

Key Study : The Stanford Prison Experiment

Procedure

A mock prison was set up in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University. Male student volunteers were psychologically and physically screened and the 24 most stable of these were randomly assigned to either play the role of 'prisoner' or 'guard'.

The prisoners were unexpectedly arrested at home and on entry to the 'prison' they were put through a delousing procedure, given a prison uniform and assigned an ID number. The guards referred to the prisoners only by these numbers throughout the study. Prisoners were allowed certain rights, including three meals and three supervised toilet trips a day and two visits per week. Participants allocated the role of guard were given uniforms, whistles and wore reflective sunglasses. Zimbardo took the role of Prison Superintendent. The study was planned to last two weeks.

Findings

Over the first few days of the study the guards grew increasingly tyrannical and abusive toward the prisoners. They woke prisoners in the night and forced them to clean the toilets with their bare hands and made them carry out other degrading activities. Some guards were so enthusiastic in their role that they volunteered to do extra hours without pay.

The participants appeared at times to forget that this was only a psychological study and that they were merely acting. Even when they were unaware of being watched, they still conformed to their role of prisoner or guard. When one prisoner had had enough he asked for 'parole' rather than asking to withdraw from the study. Five prisoners had to be released early because of their extreme reactions - symptoms that had started to appear after just two days. The study was finally terminated after only six days , following the intervention of postgraduate student Christina Maslach who reminded the researchers that this was a psychological study and as such, did not justify the abuse being meted out to the participants. This study demonstrated that both guards and prisoners conformed to their social roles. The guards became increasingly cruel and sadistic and the prisoners became increasingly passive and accepting of their plight.

Conformity to roles is not automatic

Haslam and Reicher challenged Zimbardo's belief that the guards' drift into sadistic behaviour was an…