Zimbardo and colleagues had strict control over the experiment
Selection of participants
Emotionally stable participants were selected and randomly assigned to roles so increased internal validity
Lack of realism
Banuazizi and Mohavedi argued that participants were play-acting based on stereotypes. E.g: G basing char off Cool Hand Luke
Quantitative data
Data showing that 90% of prisoner conversations were about prison life
Role of dispositional influences
Fromm accused Zimbardo of exaggerating the power of the situation where 1/3 of guards were brutal but the other 1/3 enforced the rules fairly and the rest were nice to Ps. E.g: giving cigarettes to them.
Lack of research support
Reicher and Haslam partially replicated the experiment with different findings where prisoners took control of prison due to their shared social identity who refused to accept the limits of their roles- social identity theory by Tajfel.
Ethical issues
Concerns regarding the treatment of participants and their consent. Ppt asked Zimbardo to leave but Zimbardo in his role as a superintendent treated the ppt like a P asking to be released.
