Zimbardo’s (1973) conformity to social roles

• Aim

  Investigate effects of social roles on conformity in absence of obvious authority figure
• What was the setting of the Stanford prison experiment?


  A mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University
• How many male volunteers were selected for the Stanford prison experiment?


  24 US male volunteers
• What criteria were used to select the volunteers for the experiment?


  They were psychologically and physically screened to be the most stable out of 74 applicants
• How were the volunteers allocated in the Stanford prison experiment?


  Randomly allocated 12 to prisoners and 12 as guards
• What was the duration of the Stanford prison experiment?


  It was a 2-week study
• How much were participants paid for their involvement in the study?

  $15 a day
• How were the prisoners treated upon their arrest?


  They were arrested at home and subjected to real police procedures, including mug shots and fingerprints
• What uniform did the prisoners wear during the experiment?


  They wore smocks and were referred to by numbers
• What was the role of the guards in the Stanford prison experiment?


  Guards enforced rules and wore khaki uniforms with reflective sunglasses
• What concept does the use of reflective sunglasses by guards illustrate?

  Deindividuation, as it obscured their emotions
• What were the instructions given to the prisoners regarding their behavior?


  Prisoners were to have 3 meals per day, 3 supervised toilet trips, and could only ask for parole
• What leverage were the guards told they had in the experiment?

  They were told they had complete power over the prisoners
• Findings

  • Gs grew increasingly sadistic and forced Ps to do horrible tasks
  • Pa rebelled after 2 days (ripped uniform, swore at guards) but Gs retaliated ( fire extinguishers)
  • Ps grew increasingly submissive and forgot study was fake
  • 1 P ask for parole, 5 released early due to extreme reactions (crying, rag, anxiety)
  • Ended after 6 days and post debriefed
• Conclusion

  Social roles powerful influence on conformity and behaviour and situational factors largely responsible
• Strength- real life application


  • can be used to explain Abu Gharaib- military prison in Iraq notorious for abuse towards Iraqi prisoners by US soldiers
  • Zimbardo believes that guards committing abuse were subject to situational factors like lack of training, boredom, unaccountability of actions
  • Explains horrific behaviour of US soldiers and how situational factors led to opportunity to abuse their societal power resulting in extreme behaviour
• Limitation- ethical concerns


  • high levels of stress/embarassment (psychological harm) e.g 5 Ps released early due to extreme reactions
  • May not allign with APA code of ethics and the study was unpredictable so pps couldn’t properly give informed consent
  • Lack of R2W and pps put at more harm than everyday life
  • Negatives>positives
• Limitation- gender and culture bias


  • used 24 male volunteers making it androcentric sample
  • All men were US middle class citizens so ethnocentric sample
  • Findings attempted to be applied universally but ignores/minimises differences in gender and culture (BB)
  • May not apply to women and different cultures (Bond and Smith)
  • Lacks generalisability
• Limitation- possible sample of homogenous pps


  • all male volunteers psychologically and physically screened, then 24 of most stable selected
  • Likely selected pps will share similar traits and characteristics e.g resiliency or interests in psychology
  • ignores individual differences in society so can’t be applied to wider population