9.3: 斯坦福监狱实验

The famous and controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues at Stanford University, demonstrated the power of social roles, social norms, and scripts.

Social Roles

One major social determinant of human behavior is our social role—a pattern of behavior that is expected of a person in a given setting or group (Hare, 2003). Each one of us has several social roles. You may be, at the same time, a student, a parent, an aspiring teacher, a son or daughter, a spouse, and a lifeguard. How do these social roles influence your behavior? Social roles are defined by culturally shared knowledge. That is, nearly everyone in a given culture knows what behavior is expected of a person in a given role. For example, what is the social role for a student? If you look around a college classroom you will likely see students engaging in studious behavior, taking notes, listening to the professor, reading the textbook, and sitting quietly at their desks. Of course, you may see students deviating from the expected studious behavior such as texting on their phones or using Facebook on their laptops, but in all cases, the students that you observe are attending class—a part of the social role of students.

Social roles, and our related behavior, can vary across different settings. How do you behave when you are engaging in the role of son or daughter and attending a family function? Now imagine how you behave when you are engaged in the role of employee at your workplace. It is very likely that your behavior will be different. Perhaps you are more relaxed and outgoing with your family, making jokes and doing silly things. But at your workplace you might speak more professionally, and although you may be friendly, you are also serious and focused on getting the work completed. These are examples of how our social roles influence and often dictate our behavior to the extent that identity and personality can vary with context (that is, in different social groups; Malloy, Albright, Kenny, Agatstein, & Winquist, 1997).

Social Norms

As discussed previously, social roles are defined by a culture’s shared knowledge of what is expected behavior of an individual in a specific role. This shared knowledge comes from social norms—a group’s expectations of what is appropriate and acceptable behavior for its members—how they are supposed to behave and think (Deutsch & Gerard, 1955; Berkowitz, 2004). How are we expected to act? What are we expected to talk about? What are we expected to wear? In our discussion of social roles, we noted that colleges have social norms for students’ behavior in the role of student and workplaces have social norms for employees’ behaviors in the role of employee. Social norms are everywhere including in families, gangs, and on social media outlets. 

Scripts

Because of social roles, people tend to know what behavior is expected of them in specific, familiar settings. A script is a person’s knowledge about the sequence of events expected in a specific setting (Schank & Abelson, 1977). How do you act on the first day of school, when you walk into an elevator, or are at a restaurant? For example, at a restaurant in the United States, if we want the server’s attention, we try to make eye contact. In Brazil, you would make the sound “psst” to get the server’s attention. You can see the cultural differences in scripts. To an American, saying “psst” to a server might seem rude, yet to a Brazilian, trying to make eye contact might not seem an effective strategy. Scripts are important sources of information to guide behavior in given situations. Can you imagine being in an unfamiliar situation and not having a script for how to behave? This could be uncomfortable and confusing. How could you find out about social norms in an unfamiliar culture?

Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment

In the summer of 1971, an advertisement was placed in a California newspaper asking for male volunteers to participate in a study about the psychological effects of prison life. More than 70 men volunteered, and these volunteers then underwent psychological testing to eliminate candidates who had underlying psychiatric issues, medical issues, or a history of crime or drug abuse. The pool of volunteers was whittled down to 24 healthy male college students. Each student was paid $15 per day and was randomly assigned to play the role of either a prisoner or a guard in the study. Based on what you have learned about research methods, why is it important that participants were randomly assigned?

A mock prison was constructed in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford. Participants assigned to play the role of prisoners were “arrested” at their homes by Palo Alto police officers, booked at a police station, and subsequently taken to the mock prison. The experiment was scheduled to run for several weeks. To the surprise of the researchers, both the “prisoners” and “guards” assumed their roles with zeal. In fact, on day 2, some of the prisoners revolted, and the guards quelled the rebellion by threatening the prisoners with night sticks. In a relatively short time, the guards came to harass the prisoners in an increasingly sadistic manner, through a complete lack of privacy, lack of basic comforts such as mattresses to sleep on, and through degrading chores and late-night counts.

The prisoners, in turn, began to show signs of severe anxiety and hopelessness—they began tolerating the guards’ abuse. Even the Stanford professor who designed the study and was the head researcher, Philip Zimbardo, found himself acting as if the prison was real and his role, as prison supervisor, was real as well. After only six days, the experiment had to be ended due to the participants’ deteriorating behavior. 

The Stanford prison experiment demonstrated the power of social roles, norms, and scripts in affecting human behavior. The guards and prisoners enacted their social roles by engaging in behaviors appropriate to the roles: The guards gave orders and the prisoners followed orders. Social norms require guards to be authoritarian (such behavior was reinforced; see Haslam, Reicher, & Van Bavel, 2018) and prisoners to be submissive. When prisoners rebelled, they violated these social norms, which led to upheaval. The specific acts engaged by the guards and the prisoners derived from scripts. For example, guards degraded the prisoners by forcing them do push-ups and by removing all privacy. Prisoners rebelled by throwing pillows and trashing their cells. Some prisoners became so immersed in their roles that they exhibited symptoms of mental breakdown; however, according to Zimbardo, none of the participants suffered long term harm (Alexander, 2001).

This text is adapted from OpenStax, Psychology. OpenStax CNX.

There’s a dark side to the summer of 1971. Police “arrested” a number of college students who responded to an ad seeking volunteers for a psychological study of prison life.

Little did they know, in the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department, they were about to embark upon one of the most famous and controversial psychological studies: The Stanford Prison Experiment, led by Philip Zimbardo and colleagues.

After filling out an informational questionnaire, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Prisoners—who were realistically picked up and booked by police—or Guards, who were in direct control of the inmates.

Depending on the assignment, they were dressed to fit their role—a set of expectations defining how those in the social position should behave.

For example, each guard was given a nightstick and whistle, along with mirrored aviator glasses, to emphasize their status and authority.

In addition, two researchers were present and oversaw the day-to-day operations: the lead experimenter, Zimbardo, acted as the prison superintendent, while another researcher, David Jaffe, was the Warden.

During one orientation session for the guards, Zimbardo vaguely outlined behaviors that they should conform with, like limiting the prisoners’ freedom and using their power to evoke fear and dominate non-violently.

In a follow-up session, the Warden provided more explicit directions to encourage the creation of a prison environment, for the collective good of the experiment.

With the correctional authorities in place, the prisoners entered the mock jail, which contained three cells and a closet for solitary confinement. They were stripped down, immediately degraded, and blindfolded to confuse them. Also, as part of their assigned role, they were outfitted in numbered gowns and nylon-stocking caps to depersonalize them.

On the second day, the prisoners started to rebel by blockading the cell door with the bed. As punishment, the ring leader was placed in confinement. This event precipitated the guards now turning on the other inmates, and the level of cruelty escalated.

Several guards…but not all…upped their performance to act tough—to fit the preconceived expectations of their label—all under the watchful eyes of the Warden and Superintendent. These leaders promoted toughness as a shared attribute of conforming to the in-group to achieve the goal of exposing the toxicity of the penal system.

Due to the increased and creative oppression placed on the prisoners, the experiment was terminated early, after six days instead of two weeks.

Ultimately, the guards behaved in a stereotypical tough-guy manner, striving to fit the normative guidance they were given. Sometimes, toxic situations can bring out the worst in someone, especially in cases where the individual identifies with a leader and the group’s collective cause.