AO1 and AO2

• The Stanford Prison Experiment aimed to investigate how people would behave when placed into different social roles, specifically as either prisoners or guards.
• Participants were randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or guard
• Zimbardo was interested in the effects of social roles on behaviour
• guards wore sunglasses so that they couldn't see their eyes which dehumanized them
• prisoners started to rebel
• it ended early due to ethical issues
• people wanted to leave as they were mentally effected
• they put an add in the newspaper for people to apply to participate
• participants were vetted before they took part
• when they were taken into the experiment they were kidnapped which they weren't told in the beginning of the experiment
• guards quickly took to their roles and humiliated prisoners and made them carry out degrading acts
• the prisoners become submissive and a lot showed mental distress
• prisoners started to refer to themselves as their numbers
• participants showed identification (NSI) as they changed their public behaviour and private beliefs during the experiment but was a short-term change
• experiment shows that individuals will conform readily to the role given to them even if that role over-rides their moral belief about their behaviour