4.

The Zimbardo Prison Simulation and

the Fundamental Attribution Error
Stanford Prison Study
The purpose of the experiment was to try to find out
why prisons are such nasty places. Was it because
prisons are full of nasty people, or was it because
prisons are such nasty environments that they
make people nasty?
In the answer to that question is obviously the
answer to the question posed by Bernie Goetz and
the subway cleanup, which is how much influence
docs immediate environment have on the way
people behave?

Stanford Prison Study

Social situations are governed by implicit and
explicit rules (or norms).
To explore how these rules create social reality,
Zimbardo enrolled 24 healthy volunteers in a twoweek study of prison life.
Participants were randomly assigned to be either
guards or prisoners.
Guards became sadistic, and prisoners had such
extreme stress responses that the study was
terminated after only 6 day

Stanford Prison Study

Zimbardo's conclusion was that there are specific
situations so powerful that they can overwhelm our
inherent predispositions. The key word here is
situation. Zimbardo isn't talking about environment,
about the major external influences on all of our
lives. He's not denying that how we are raised by
our parents affects who we are, or that the kind of
schools we went to, the friends we have, or the
neighborhoods we live in affect our behavior

Attribution
Is the mental process of inferring the causes of
peoples behavior, including ones own.
Also
refers to the explanation made for a particular
behavior.
There are two categories:
personal attribution, and
situational attribution

Attribution
Why is this baby smiling?

Personal attribution: The baby must be a

happy baby.
Situational attribution: Someone must have
just played with the baby .

Self-serving bias

People do not make objective situational /

personal attributions for their own behavior,
though.
They tend to attribute their successes to
dispositional factors, and their failures to
situational factors.
For example: I did well on the test because I
am smart, or I did poor on the test because I
didnt get enough sleep.

Fundamental Attribution Error

Is the tendency to attribute the behavior of others to

internal causes (personality, likes, and so forth), while
ignoring or underestimating the effects of external,
situational factors.
People fall prey to the fundamental attribution error even
when they are fully aware of the situations impact.

For Example:
You are waiting in line at the airport when someone cuts
you off. Internally you think, this guy is a real jerk! How
rude!
Do you see that we are attributing his behavior to internal
causes, as if something is inherently wrong with him?
Attributing his behavior to internal causes is generally an
automatic first step.
Then you over hear him say that this is an emergency and
he is in a rush because his mother is at her death bed.
Then, we usually take this information into account and
consider the situation, which is considered to be the

5. The Good Samaritan Experiment

Time pressure can conflict with ones good
intentions of helping those in need.
Darley & Batsons (1973) Good Samaritan study
Princeton Theological Seminary students told
the must deliver an impromptu sermon on
Good Samaritan
Time pressure manipulation:
You have plenty of time
You must go now
Youre late
On the way there, they see man doubled over
in pain

Darley & Batsons (1973) Results

Note: Many participants actually stepped over the man needing help.

The Good Samaratin

What this study is suggesting, in other words, is that
the convictions of your heart and the actual contents
of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in
guiding your actions than the immediate context of
your behavior.
The words Oh, youre late had the effect of making
someone who was ordinarily compassionate into
someone who was indifferent to sufferingof turning
someone, in that particular moment, into a different
person.