zimbardo

• Zimbardo study


  24 male, middle class Americans randomly assigned to prisoner or guard roles conducted at Stanford University
• Zimbardo study


  1. Prisoners arrested in their homes given smocks to wear and referred to by a number

  2. Guards wore uniform, sunglasses and a hat

  3. Guards worked 8 hour shifts with 3 guards to the prisoners

  4. Zimbardo was the prison Superintendent

  5. No physical violence allowed
• Zimbardo study findings


  • Participants quickly conformed to their assigned roles
  • Prisoners talked about prison life and rebelled
  • Guards harassed and humiliated prisoners and made them complete pointless tasks
  • 4 prisoners left the study due to emotional distress
  • Study shut down after 6 days, when it was meant to last 2 weeks
• Lack of ecological validity


  Participants knew it wasn't a real prison, so may not have behaved how they would in a real prison
• Ecological validity


  Participants responded as if it were a real prison, with 90% of conversations about prison life
• The Zimbardo study also showed awareness of ethics, as the researchers stopped it before it could get worse
• The Zimbardo study only used American male participants, so the results may not apply to other cultures or genders
• Zimbardo's role as prison superintendent may have introduced investigator effects that influenced the participants' behaviour
• The Zimbardo study may have exaggerated the power of roles, as only 1/3 of guards behaved brutally and most resisted the pressure of the brutal role