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This version was published on May 1, 2007
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 5, 603-614 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167206292689
© 2007 Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: Could Participant Self-Selection Have Led to the Cruelty?

Thomas Carnahan

Western Kentucky University

Sam McFarland

Western Kentucky University, sam.mcfarland{at}wku.edu

The authors investigated whether students who selectively volunteer for a study of prison life possess dispositions associated with behaving abusively. Students were recruited for a psychological study of prison life using a virtually identical newspaper ad as used in the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE; Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973) or for a psychological study, an identical ad minus the words of prison life. Volunteers for the prison study scored significantly higher on measures of the abuse-related dispositions of aggressiveness, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and social dominance and lower on empathy and altruism, two qualities inversely related to aggressive abuse. Although implications for the SPE remain a matter of conjecture, an interpretation in terms of person-situation interactionism rather than a strict situationist account is indicated by these findings. Implications for interpreting the abusiveness of American military guards at Abu Ghraib Prison also are discussed.

Key Words: prison • aggression • Machiavellianism • authoritarianism • narcissism


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