Reicher & Haslam (2006) BBC Prison study

Aims
1. To repeat Zimbardo in an ethical way.
2. To analyse conditions that lead individuals to identify with their group.
3. To analyse conditions that lead individuals to criticise their roles within their group.
4. To analyse the importance of power in group behaviour.
5. To investigate how people respond to inequality
6. To investigate under what conditions does tyranny arise.
  1. Tyranny: cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.
Participants
1. 15 males
  1. Selected from 332 who had replied to advertisements in the press
  2. Chosen after screening procedures
    1. Psychometric tests to make sure they were well-balanced and mentally healthy
    2. A full weekend assessment by clinical psychologists.
    3. Medical and character references and police checks.
    4. Final 15 were chosen from a short list of 27 to ensure diversity of age, class and ethnicity.
Procedure
1. A mock prison was created by the BBC in a television studio.
  1. Planned to last for 10 days and would be broadcast on TV in 4 one hour programmes.
  2. At first there was only 14 participants.
    1. The 15th came later.
    2. They were randomly allocated to the role of either guard or prisoner.
      1. 5 Guards and 10 prisoners. The set had lockable 3 person cells.
      2. Guard induction
        The guards were taken to a hotel the night before. Told their job was to make sure it went smoothly.
        sanctions to use on prisoners who were uncooperative - isolation cell and bread and water diet.
        No physical violence.
        Rewards of snacks and cigarettes.
        Had keys to the cells and upper level 'guards station' with a surveillance system.
        Shirt and tie and better food and living conditions.
        Prisoner induction.
        Heads shaved, loose trousers, sandals and tshirt with 3 digit number. Were told their rules and rights.
Independent variables.
1. The permeability of roles
  1. Guards told that they had been selected on various criteria, participants told that they are not always reliable and that prisoners could be promoted to guard on day 3.
    1. At the outset they all believed it was possible to change roles.
      1. After day 6 the roles were impermeable.
2. Legitimacy of roles
  1. On day 3 prisoners were told that there were really no differences between prisoners and guards but that it was impractical to reassign roles thus causing the perception that group differences were not legitimate but random.
3. Cognitive alternatives
  1. On the 4th day, a new prisoner (chosen because of his background as a Trade Union official) was introduced to provide the skills required to organise 'collective action'.
Dependent variables
1. Social variables
  1. Social identification
  2. Awareness of alternatives
  3. Authoritarian attitudes
  4. Organisation variables
  5. Compliance with the rules
  6. Clinical variables: depression, stress
2. These variables were measured by:
  1. Video and audio surveillance
  2. Daily psychometric training
  3. Daily saliva swabs
Social identity theory
1. SIT is that no matter what the group is or how it was formed, we always think our groups the best.
2. Theory states that people actually get their identity from the group to which they believe they are from.
3. Need to see our group as being superior to others.
4. If a group believes it is less superior it will take the discrimination it receives.
Quantative results
1. Group Identity - social identification
  1. Prisoner in-group identification increased. Guard in-group identification decreased.
2. Compliance
  1. Prisoner compliance reduced after group boundaries perceived to be impermeable (after day 3). The guards comply with rules more than the prisoners do.
3. Authortarianism
  1. Both prisoners and guards level of authoritarianism significantly increased over the length of the study.
4. Depression
  1. Overal depression low, but prisoners depression reduced while guards depression increased.
Qualitative
1. On day 5
  1. A trade union official was introduced to present a cognitive alternative although this was not needed.
2. On day 6
  1. Some prisoners break out of cells and occupy guards quarters and at this point the guards regime becomes unworkable.
3. On day 7
  1. Introduction of the commune - new terms were drawn up by the participants.
4. On day 8
  1. Within a day new structure stops working because two ex-prisoners break the commune rules. A harsher prisoner - guard regime was proposed, for example PB said "we want to be the guards and f**king make them toe the line…" but for ethical reasons this stricter regime could not be implemented.
5. The study ends prematurely. The experimenters stop the study out of concern for the participants well - being.
Conclusions
1. Results support the SPE conclusions that the collective conflict and tyranny cannot be understood by looking at the individual, any count must look at group processes.
2. Failing groups create problems for their own members, and for others, because when people cannot create a social system they will accept extreme solutions proposed by others.
  1. It is the breakdown of groups, and powerlessness, that create the conditions for tyranny.
    1. Examples from study
      1. Guards regime collapses
      2. Commune introduced - when this is about to collapse a tyrannical system is proposed by Bimson. Space for power occurs.
Evaluation
1. Research method used
  1. Study was a controlled procedure in an artificial environment.
  2. Has some strengths of a lab experiment.
  3. Straightfoward to replicate, making them reliable.
2. Sample
  1. Sample size = 15
    1. Quite small
    2. male volunteers of a single nationality recruited by newspaper ads
      1. unrepresentative sample
        been screened and judged makes representativeness worse.

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Reicher & Haslam (2006) BBC Prison study

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	Created by dionnebrighton over 11 years ago