Lesson 5: Conformity to social roles as investigated by Zimbardo

Question 1

What is conformity to social roles?

Answer 1

Conformity to the parts people play as members of various social groups - these are accompanied by expectations we and others have of what is appropriate behaviour in each role.

Question 2

Zimbaro (1974) provides research support for conformity to social roles - what was the procedure and findings?

Answer 2

SPE experiment - 24 male college students, 10 prisoners and 11 guards (2 reserves, 1 dropped out). Prisoners were deindividuated