Stanford Prison Experiment Report
What did the experiment entail ?
Obedience
What other experiments looked at obedience?
What is it?
How is it linked to Stanford ?
Conducted 1971 by Professor Zimbardo
Procedure
Study planned for two weeks, but only done for six days
Looked for the mechanism for behavior
Dispositions - Your personality depends how you behave
Situational - Does the situation change the person you are
Men had to have a clean record - no history of crime or mental disabilities
Paid participants $15/day
24 men out of 70 chosen and randomly assigned guard or prisoner
Done in Stanford university psychology department
Contract given to both parties
Prisoners - Gave up basic human rights i.e. food (eating)
Guards - could make their own rules, but no violence allowed
Changing your behavior due to authority
French and Raven's power bases
Situational factors
Social power that others have due to hierarchy
Personality factors/ dispositions
Milgram
normative influence - create the other guards being role models and others being just as aggressive
Authoritarian personality
informational influence - created people following the experiment thoroughly
Diffusion of responsibility (AGENTIC STATE)
Reward
Informational
Legitimate
Coercive
No choice - told that they "could not quit"
Had to do push ups when badly behaved
Placed in confinement
Prisoners
$15/day for everyone
No rights as contracts were signed
Referent
Proximity of authority - guards worked only 8 hours
Stanford university
Helped US Navy answer why there was conflict between military guards and prisoners
10 minute visits from family members
Privilege cell
Burger
Looked at obedience today
65% people went all the way
Obedience study - test whether people blindly obeyed (based on WW2 obedience)
1963
Slightly lower (55%)
Empathy
Desire for control
Techniques
Door in the face
Norm of reciprocity
Expert
Skills and abilities