School of Psychology, The University of Queensland.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews.
Am Psychol. 2019 Oct;74(7):809-822. doi: 10.1037/amp0000443. Epub 2019 Aug 5.
The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is one of the most famous studies in the history of psychology. For nearly a half century it has been understood to show that assigning people to a toxic role will, on its own, unlock the human capacity to treat others with cruelty. In contrast, principles of identity leadership argue that roles are unlikely to elicit cruelty unless leaders encourage potential perpetrators to identify with what is presented as a noble ingroup cause and to believe their actions are necessary for the advancement of that cause. Although identity leadership has been implicated in behavior ranging from electoral success to obedience to authority, researchers have hitherto had limited capacity to establish whether role conformity or identity leadership provides a better account of the cruelty observed in the SPE. Through examination of material in the SPE archive, we present comprehensive evidence that, rather than guards conforming to role of their own accord, experimenters directly encouraged them to adopt roles and act tough in a manner consistent with tenets of identity leadership. Implications for the analysis of conformity and cruelty as well as for interpretation of the SPE are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
斯坦福监狱实验（SPE）是心理学史上最著名的研究之一。近半个世纪以来，人们一直认为，将人们分配到一个有毒的角色中，仅凭这一点就可以释放人类残忍对待他人的能力。相比之下，认同领导原则认为，除非领导者鼓励潜在的犯罪者认同被认为是高尚的内群体事业，并相信他们的行为对推进该事业是必要的，否则角色不太可能引起残忍行为。尽管认同领导原则已经涉及从选举成功到服从权威等各种行为，但研究人员迄今的能力有限，无法确定角色一致性还是认同领导原则更能解释在 SPE 中观察到的残忍行为。通过对 SPE 档案中的材料进行审查，我们提供了全面的证据，表明实验者直接鼓励看守者接受角色，并以符合认同领导原则的方式采取强硬行动，而不是看守者自行符合角色。讨论了对一致性和残忍行为的分析以及对 SPE 的解释的影响。（PsycINFO 数据库记录（c）2019 APA，保留所有权利）。
