Conformity to social roles

• Zimbarda prison Experiment

  • Procedure: Participants allocated to either 'prisoner' or 'guard' role
  • Intended to see how they behave in the absence of an authority figure
  • Emotionally stable students put in prison simulation
  • Intended to last 2 weeks
  • Participants had their own uniforms to emphasise social roles
• Zimbarda prison Experiment

  1. Guards treated prisoners harshly, especially after dealing with an attempted rebellion

  2. Guards acted in tyrannical, abusive ways e.g. simulate sexual acts or make prisoners clean toilets with their bare hands

  3. Prisoners became more passive and accepting of their situation

  4. 90% of prisoner conversations were about prison conditions, prisoners became more depressed

  5. Study stopped by Zimbardo's girlfriend after 6 days
• Guards, prisoners and researchers all conformed, roles given influenced behaviour, power of situation to influence behaviour