ABSTRACT

Many students of social psychology become familiar with the concept of role through learning about Philip Zimbardo’s classic ‘Stanford Prison experiment’. Zimbardo was a colleague of Stanley Milgram, and was familiar with his research on obedience. Zimbardo and his co-researchers at Stanford University were interested in understanding the experience of being in prison, both as a prisoner and as a prison guard. Zimbardo had previously been involved in the study of anti-social acts such as vandalism, and was concerned about the apparent ease with which ordinary people could become dehumanised and ‘deindividuated’ when they are in situations in which they feel anonymous or are able to see others as enemies or less than human. The study, reported in Haney et al. (1973), was carried out in 1971, at a time when there was considerable unrest in US prisons. The controversy and publicity that surrounded the outcome of the study gave Zimbardo a platform on which to speak out against the inhumane conditions in many prisons (e.g. Zimbardo, 1975).