Zimbardo: Conformity to Social Roles

• Social role

  A pattern of behaviour that is expected of a person in a given setting.
• Aim

  If ordinary people were placed in a simulated prison environment and some of them were designated as guards and some prisoners, how would they behave in their new social roles?
• Procedure

  Volunteer sample of 24 male university students. Participants were selected based on physical and mental stability (via a questionnaire) and were each paid $15 a day. Ppts were randomly assigned to a role: prisoner or guard. Prisoners were arrested by real local police, fingerprinted, stripped and given numbered smock to wear, with chains placed around their ankles. Guards were given uniforms, reflective sunglasses, handcuffs and a truncheon. The guards were instructed to run the prison without violence. The experiment was stopped after 6 days despite being set to run for 2 weeks.
• Findings

  • Guards and prisoners quickly settled into social roles.
  • After a rebellion, guards became more sadistic; at 2:30am the prisoners were awakened by whistles for the first of many 'counts' which served to familiarise them with their numbers.
  • Some prisoners sided with the guards against protesters. Rules were taken very seriously.
  • After 36 hours, one prisoner was released due to fits of crying and rage.
  • 3 more prisoners developed similar symptoms.
  • Stopped after 6 days due to increased violence.
  • Both groups were surprised in post interviews at their uncharacteristic behaviours.
• Prisoner 819

  After talking to the priest, #819 broke down, hysterically crying, psychologists removed the chain from his ankles and told him to rest in a room adjacent to the prison yard. The guards lined up the prisoners outside the room to chant that #819 was a 'bad prisoner'. Psychologists tried to get him to leave but he said that he couldn't because he was a 'bad prisoner'. Zimbardo had to debrief #819 in order to get the hysteria to end and get him to agree to leave.
• Conclusions

  Individuals conform readily to social roles demanded of a situation- even when these demands override our own moral beliefs; the guards showed no sadistic tendencies before the experiment.

  Social roles demonstrated were obtained from media sources and learned sources of power (parent-child, teacher-student).