Conformity to social roles: Zimbardo

Behaviour may be determined by social norms

Procedure- SPE

• Mock prison with 21 students randomly assigned as prisoners or guards

• conformity to social roles created through uniforms and instructions about behaviour

• Guards were told they had complete control

• Zimbardo as ‘superintendent’

Findings- increasingly

• Guards became increasingly brutal

• Prisoners increasingly withdrawn and depressed and tried to rebel such as hunger strikes

• Meant to last 14 days but ended after 6

Conclusions- conformity

• Participants conformed strongly to their role as guard or prisoner

• Revealed the power of the situation to influence peoples behaviour

Control over variables :)

• Random assignment (not personality) of roles and of emotionally stable participants increased internal validity

• therefore more confident about drawing conclusions

Lack of realism :(

• (Mohavedi) Participants were playing stereotypes according to media-derived stereotypes (cool hand Luke)

• Suggest tells us little about social roles in actual prisons