Conformity to social roles

• The Stanford prison experiment (SPE)

  • Zimbardo
  • 21 men (volunteer students) who identified as 'emotionally stable'
  • Prisoners and guards were encouraged to conform to social roles both through their uniforms and the instructions they were given
• Uniform

  • Prisoners - loose smock and cap. Identified by numbers.
  • Guards - wooden club, handcuffs and mirror shades
  • Created a loss of personal identity (called de-individuation) and meant they would be more likely to conform to perceived roles
• Instructions about behaviour

  • Prisoners were further encouraged to identify with their role by several procedures
  • For example, "applying for parole" instead of leaving the experiment early
• Findings related to social roles

  • Prisoners rebelled within 2 days
  • Guards used a 'divide-and-rule' tactic
  • Guards harassed prisoners constantly to remind them of their powerlessness
  • Some showed signs of psychological disturbance
  • One went on hunger strike
  • 'The hole' - a dark, tiny closet
  • Guards identified more and more closely with their role
  • Aggressive, brutal
  • Zimbardo ended the experiment after only 6 days
• Conclusions related to social roles

  • Social roles appear to have a strong influence on individuals' behaviour - the guards became aggressive and the prisoners became submissive
  • Even external volunteers (such as the 'prison chaplain') found themselves behaving as if they were in a prison rather than in a psychological study
• Control

  • Strength of the SPE - Zimbardo and his colleagues had control over key variables
  • Selection of participants - emotionally stable, randomly assigned individuals
  • Allowed researchers to rule out individual differences
  • The degree of control increases the internal validity of the study
• Lack of realism

  • Limitation - did not have realism of a true prison
  • Banuazizi and Movahedi argued the participants were merely play-acting rather than genuinely conforming to their social roles
  • Participants' actions were based off stereotypes
  • One guard even said he based his role on a brutal character from the film Cool Hand Luke
• Counterpoint to Banuazizi & Movahedi


  • Mark McDermott argued that the participants did behave as if the prison was real
  • 90% of the prisoners' conversations were about prison life
  • For example, talking about 'sentences'
  • One prisoner even said how they thought that the prison was a real one, but controlled by psychologists rather than the government
  • High degree of internal validity
• Exaggerates the power of roles

  • Limitation
  • Only 1/3 of the guards actually behaved in a brutal manner
  • 1/3 of guards tried to help the prisoners by offering them cigarettes, reinstating privileges etc
  • Suggests that Zimbardo overstated his view that SPE participants were conforming to social rules and minimised the influence of dispositional factors