1.1.4 Conformity to Social Roles: Zimbardo

Zimbardo (1970's) - Conformity to social roles

Social roles = The parts individuals play as members of a social group

Aim:

To investigate the extent to which individuals would conform to the social roles of guards and prisoners in a role-playing simulation of prison life

Participants:

👬 24 physically and emotionally stable male undergraduate students

Key facts:

• Advertised in a newspaper and paid prisoners $15 a day
• Prisoners wore smocks, nylon stocking caps, and a chain around one ankle and were only referred to by their assigned number - an attempt to deindividualise them.
• Guards wore khaki uniforms and were given handcuffs and reflective sunglasses
• Prisoners were given a realistic, unexpected arrest - fingerprinted and stripped.

Procedure:

• Zimbardo converted the basement of Stanford University into a mock prison.
• Participants were randomly assigned the roles of guards and prisoners.
• The guards were instructed to run the prison without using physical violence.
• The experiment was set to run for two weeks.

Findings:

• Both the prisoners and guards quickly identified with their social roles. Within days the prisoners rebelled and the guards then grew increasingly aggressive and abusive towards the prisoners, becoming a threat to the prisoner's physical and psychological health. The prisoners became increasingly submissive, identifying further with their subordinate role.
• Prisoners would snitch on other prisoners in an attempt to please the guards.
• They would defend the guards when other prisoners broke the rules, reinforcing their social roles as guards and prisoners, despite it being a role-play simulation of prison life.

Conclusion:

The guards became more assertive and demanding of obedience from the prisoners while the prisoners became more submissive. This suggests that the social roles became increasingly internalised even when the role went against their moral principles

Prison guards

Evaluation - Zimbardo