Week 7 | Day 2 | PSYA02

Social Roles and the Power of the Situation

Philip Zimbardi examined the power of situations and social roles in the Stanford Prison Experiment in the 1970s
- Young men were recruited to participate in Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
- App participants were psychologically healthy at the time of recruitment
- Participants were randomly assigned to be a prisoner or guard

*In case these bullet points don’t help, here is a full description:

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 to examine the effects of perceived power and authority in a simulated prison environment. Participants were randomly assigned to act as either guards or prisoners in a mock prison setting. The study was intended to last two weeks but was terminated after only six days due to the extreme and unethical behaviour exhibited by the participants. The guards quickly became abusive and authoritarian, while the prisoners showed signs of psychological distress. The experiment highlighted the profound impact of situational factors on human behavior and raised ethical concerns regarding the treatment of participants in psychological research.

On the second day of experiment, feelings of powerlessness, dehumanization and depersonalization began to escalate
Simulation of prison experiment was originally scheduled for 14 days but ended early after 6 days due to horrific circumstances
Illustrates the power of the situation and social roles on affecting people’s behaviour

Bystander Effect: Thinking Someone Else Will Help

Bystander Effect
- Helping is negatively correlated with number of witnesses
Diffusion of Responsibility
- More witnesses = individual less likely to help
Pluralistic Ignorance
- Aka it's when people go along with something they don't agree with because they think everyone else agrees with it
Helping Behaviour is Affected by Three Overarching Themes:
- Level of danger present
- Whether the perpetrator was present or absent
- Type of help required