Zimbardo Stanford Prison study - conformity to social roles

• The experiment was conducted by Philip Zimbardo, who wanted to investigate the effects of prison life on both prisoners and guards.
• The participants were randomly assigned to either be a guard or prisoner, with no prior knowledge about what they would have to do.
• Zimbardo's aim was to explore how people would conform to and adopt new roles of prisoners or guards in a prison setting
• Participants: 70 males responded to the California newspaper advert and volunteered, they were screened for psychiatric and medical issues, 24 male college students chosen were then randomly assigned the role of either prisoner or guard and paid $15 a day
• Procedure

  1. Participants arrived at designated location

  2. Participants given uniforms

  3. Participants told they could not leave until released by superintendent

  4. Guards wore sunglasses to avoid showing emotion towards prisoners

  5. Participants given numbers instead of names to further dehumanise them

  6. First week consisted of orientation, induction, and training

  7. Prisoners locked into cells overnight for first time

  8. This continued for two weeks

  9. Various activities such as work details, roll call, meals, recreation, lights out, bedtime
• Prisons set up: The prisons were located at the basement of the psychology department building at Stanford University, one was called 'Stanford County Jail', the other 'Stanford County Youth Correctional Facility'. They had separate entrances, exits, exercise yards, dining halls etc. There was also an infirmary, library, visiting room, courtroom, and punishment cell (the hole)
• Prisoners were arrested by their local police department from their homes unexpectedly and taken to the prison
• Findings: the guards cruelly harassed and humiliated the prisoners, the prisoners rebelled after 2 days, prisoners became depressed and anxious and by day 6 the prisoners too conformed to their social roles and were totally submissive to the guards; the study had to be ended after 6 days, even Zimbardo became too involved, forgetting his role as prison super-intendant/supervisor was not real.
• The experiment showed that when people are placed in certain situations, they will act according to what is expected of them, regardless of whether it goes against their moral values or beliefs
• EVAL:

  • high levels of control - variables controlled, random allocation of roles, psychiatric screening
  • protection from psychological harm - prisoners arrested from their homes (embarrassment and reputation) , guards not stopped from doing what they wanted to the prisoners
  • lack of informed consent - prisoners couldn't consent fully because they wouldn't know what the guards were going to do to them