Zimbardo's prison experiment

... Zimbardo's prison experiment Zimbardo used a prison stimulation to investigate to what extent people would conform to new social roles when they took part in a role-playing exercise. Zimbardo used 25 male volunteers, judged to be both physically and mentally healthy, and allocated randomly to the roles of prisoners or guards. Volunteers would be paid $15 a day during the study. The prisoners were 'arrested' at their homes and, after being initially processed by the police, handed over to the guards. From then they were to by their number only, their toilet visits were supervised, they were assigned work shifts and they were lined up three times a day for a count. There were three 'guards' who wore khaki skirts and trousers, dark glasses and carried wooden batons. The guards were permitted to devise most rules (though no psychical aggression was allowed) conformed to their perceived roles. Although Zimbardo intended the

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