Tyranny revisited Groups, psychological well-being and the health of societies VIL acts, we like to think, are the preserve of psychopaths. Yet 30 to E 40 years ago, a series of classic STEPHEN REICHER and psychology experiments showed that the behaviour of ordinary people can be S.ALEXANDER HASLAM discuss transformed in groups and that the most decent of individuals can be led to behave results from their BBC Prison Study. in the most indecent ways. These studies raise critical questions about the processes In this, ordinary young men were divided agency and hence to become helpless to through which groups can transform us, randomly into prisoners and guards and resist antisocial impulses. Groups are and whether such transformations are placed in a prison-like setting. Very inevitably bad for you. Groups with power always for the worse. Yet for decades it has inevitably abuse it. Or, in the researchers’ been impossible to conduct studies with the own words, the aggression of the guards same power as the classic studies and to ‘Can collaborations between ‘was emitted simply as a “natural” interrogate their conclusions. The BBC the media and academia ever consequence of being in the uniform of Prison Study has broken this impasse and be of scientific value?’ a “guard” and asserting the power inherent provides a surprising new set of answers in that role’ (Haney et al., 1973, p.12). with important social, clinical and organisational ramifications. quickly, some of the guards began to act A powerful phenomenon… brutally. They set out to humiliate the but a questionable explanation Are groups ‘naturally’ bad prisoners and to deprive them of their Although few doubt what happened at for us? rights. Within days, some prisoners began Stanford, there are in fact good reasons Of all the demonstrations that groups can to develop psychological disorders. So to doubt Zimbardo’s explanation of the change us, perhaps the most extreme was severe were the consequences that a study events. If it is ‘natural’ to abuse power in conducted by Philip Zimbardo and scheduled to last a fortnight had to be groups, why did only some guards behave colleagues at the University of Stanford in terminated after only six days. this way? And if only some guards were 1971 (Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973). The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) brutal, was this ‘natural’ or was it a product provided a grimly compelling portrait of of Zimbardo’s leadership? After all, in his the power of circumstances to shape briefing, Zimbardo instructed his guards by WEBLINKS behaviour. This is the main reason why its telling them: ‘You can create in the findings are well-known even beyond the prisoners…a notion of arbitrariness, that BBC Prison Study official website: boundaries of academia. But the SPE their life is totally controlled by us, by the www.theexperiment.org.uk didn’t just show the depths that people system, you, me – and they’ll have no Stanford Prison Experiment official website: can descend to in groups, it also sought to privacy… We’re going to take away their www.prisonexp.org explain exactly what caused this descent. individuality in various ways. In general Social science commentary on Abu Ghraib: To those who ran the study, it illustrated what all this leads to is a sense of tinyurl.com/8m2bx a general tendency for people in groups powerlessness.’ to lose their capacity for judgement and There are also moral reasons to doubt 146 The Psychologist Vol 19 No 3 March 2006 BBC Prison Study a piece of reality television with no serious judgement of those who read our work. implications? Can collaborations between However, for us, one of the contributions of the media and academia ever be of the study is already implied in the range of scientific value? Can broadcasting outputs it has led to. Characteristically, in psychological research be ethical? our everyday studies, psychologists tend to focus on a narrow set of phenomena and Scientific output collect a limited range of data. We thereby These were valid fears. That is why we perpetuate arbitrary disciplinary divisions negotiated a unique contract with the BBC between domains that one might expect to whereby we, the scientists, would design, be interrelated. In nearly 10 days of run and analyse the research (as we would constant data collection – which in any other study) while the broadcaster incorporated observational, psychometric recorded and transmitted key elements of and physiological measures – we were able the research. The television documentaries to examine how relations within and themselves were not the full scientific between groups developed and impacted story, but rather were designed to provide upon each other. We also had space to ‘a window on the science’: something that investigate clinical and organisational as might get people interested and motivate well as social psychological issues. We them to find out more for themselves. were thereby able to see how phenomena However, the process of producing that are of core concern to us as social television documentaries moves much psychologists (notably, the presence or more quickly than that of performing absence of a shared sense of social the ‘role’ explanation. It suggests that all scientific analysis and securing scientific identity) are related to the mental well- of us would mindlessly abuse others if we publication. So, for a long time these being of individuals and the health of were given roles that appeared to demand documentaries were the primary form of social systems. Although it has been this. This denies the capacity for human information about the study that was in the hypothesised that there is a link between agency and choice (Reicher & Haslam, in public domain. It is only now that, in the these elements (e.g. Ellemers et al., 1999; press). And it suggests that – whatever words of The Guardian’s John Sutherland Haslam, 2001), no single study had position they occupy in the social hierarchy (2005), The Experiment has ‘crossed back demonstrated that the phenomena are – bullies and tyrants are passive victims of into academia’. So it is only now that is it interrelated, elucidated how they are psychology who cannot be held possible to assess the scientific merits of interrelated, or explored how their accountable for their actions. In this way, the exercise. Did it provide any worthwhile relationship unfolds over time. psychological analysis easily ends up insights into the psychology of group excusing the inexcusable (Haslam & behaviour and misbehaviour? And did it do Procedure, ethics and rationale Reicher, 2006). so with a rigour that meets the standards In what ways, then, did the design of our required for scientific publication? This is study differ from the SPE? The study used Beyond Stanford – The BBC a particularly pertinent question in light of the same basic set-up as Zimbardo’s study Prison Study the fact that the findings of the SPE were and divided people randomly into prisoners We have been stuck with this questionable never published in a peer-reviewed and guards. However, unlike Zimbardo, we explanation for a whole generation, psychology journal. did not act as prison superintendents who because the behaviour that lent the SPE The answer to the latter question is instructed the guards how to act. We impact made it unethical to repeat. How clear. The study’s key findings were first simply set up a situation in which the can we advance understanding of the summarised in Scientific American Mind guards had authority, had the tools of psychology of tyranny without ourselves (Haslam & Reicher, 2005) and in a more power and had better conditions (food, being tyrannical? detailed exploration of tyranny in the living quarters, etc.) than the prisoners. Our This was the dilemma that confronted British Journal of Social Psychology intention was to create a situation that was us when we set to work on a new ‘prison (Reicher & Haslam, 2006). Additional harsh and testing, but not harmful. In order study’ in 2001. This ended up being one of publications also explore a broad range of to make sure we got the balance right, our the largest experiments in social social, clinical and organisational issues study was also overseen by clinical psychology since the 1970s. The study we including agency (Reicher & Haslam, in psychologists and an independent ethics conducted – referred to as the BBC Prison press), stress (Haslam & Reicher, in press- committee chaired by an MP. Study – was a collaboration between b), leadership (Reicher et al., 2005) and On the basis of social identity theory ourselves and the broadcaster. It was filmed organisational behaviour (Haslam & (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), we also planned by the BBC and televised in four hour-long Reicher, in press-a). Indeed, to our a series of interventions designed to impact documentaries in May 2002. knowledge, the study has generated more on the level of shared social identity among Yet even before the study was run, and peer-reviewed publications than any the prisoners and thereby to increase their certainly after the documentaries were previous social psychological field study. willingness to resist the guards’ regime and aired, the BBC Prison Study attracted As to the former question – did the any tyranny associated with it. Using considerable controversy – much of which study provide any worthwhile insights? – systematic observation (aided by was aired in The Psychologist. Was it just the answer obviously depends upon the unobtrusive filming) and daily 147 March 2006 www.thepsychologist.org.uk BBC Prison Study administration of psychometric and oppression or reject and resist it? And what prisoners than to punish them. Our physiological measures, we then observed is the role of the group in these processes? participants showed no ‘natural’ tendencies how both groups reacted.