Psychology in Social Roles Today

What makes a good person do a bad thing? How did normal people commit horrifying atrocities in the Holocaust and why did neighbors turn on each other during the Rwandan Genocide? Why do people partake in events when they know what they are doing is contrary to their own moral beliefs? These questions may never be answered, but many psychological experiments have been performed to test the effects that conformity and perceived power have on an individual’s behavior.

Peering into the Brain’s Group Psychology

Psychology in the Stanford Prison Experiment

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo organized the Stanford Prison Experiment. His initial hopes for the experiment were to test the psychological effects of prison, using normal college students given the role of a guard or a prisoner. These two roles were set up to simulate feelings of power for the guard and dehumanization for the prisoner. In order to gain accurate data to how perceived power influenced psychological behavior, Zimbardo needed to make the conditions of the prison as real as possible. He achieved this by transforming the psychology building into a makeshift prison and equipping the “guards” and “prisoners” with their own uniform.

The terrifying impact of the prison on Prisoner #819 as the experiment became more real
From “Stanford Prison Experiment”

As the experiment continued, however, prisoners began taunting the guards, prompting some of the guards to use their authority, mentally and physically abusing the prisoners. Zimbardo and his team recognized that the experiment was getting out of hand so they ended the 2 week experiment after only 6 days. Even though the experiment ended early, Zimbardo gathered significant data about dangers of perceived power. Although the guards were all of a previous healthy mental state and of normal intelligence, they became violent and malicious perpetrators against the prisoners in the experiment. The question about how and why they were able to act contrary to their moral compass lies in the power they were given as guards and the view they had on the prisoners – humiliating and dehumanizing the prisoners made the guards feel superior and like they had the right to treat them badly.

Asch Conformity Experiment: The people in the background were the real participants of the Asch Conformity Experiment. Read more below to learn more about group mentality and what those ABC lines are for! Source: Wikimedia Commons

Group Mentality in the Ash Conformity Experiment

Another psychological experiment that presents impactful insight on human behavior is the Asch Conformity Experiment. In this experiment, a group of people were shown a line and asked to match it to one of three other lines, A, B, or C. Most of the participants were “in” on the experiment and picked an incorrect line purposefully, but one participant had not been told which line to pick and did not know that others were choosing incorrectly on purpose. As the test began, the normal participant repeated what the others chose even though it was obviously the wrong answer. Asch’s findings from this experiment proved that people will conform, or follow, group mentality even if they know the group is incorrect.

A depiction of the line test and the “odd” participant as opposed to those told to give the incorrect answer
From “Simply Psychology”

How are the Stanford Prison Experiment and Asch Conformity Experiment relevant today?

How are these experiments still relevant today? Our human history has taught us that people in positions of perceived power can be extremely dangerous, especially when conforming to the mentality of a group.

Psychology in the Holocaust

An extreme example of this is the Holocaust. In his book, “Ordinary Men”, Christopher Browning analyzes the impact of psychology on why Nazis in the Holocaust chose to participate in the killing of European Jews. One thing he noted was that many of the men had a choice and decided to kill because it was what their government and superiors were strongly promoting. These choices follow the ideas in The Asch Conformity Experiment and also tie into the Stanford Prison Experiment because of the feelings of superiority the Nazis gave themselves over others. However, Browning makes the distinction that in the end we cannot blame our actions on psychology and we are all responsible for the choices we make and the impacts they have on others.

“Within virtually every social collective, the peer group exerts tremendous pressures on behavior and sets moral norms.”

Christopher Browning
Source: “Ordinary Men”, page 99

Psychology in the Rwandan Genocide

Just like how conformity played a large role in the Holocaust, the killers in the Rwandan Genocide employed psychology in order to convince normal Hutu people to turn on and kill their Tutsi neighbors. A large factor in both this genocide and the Holocaust was propaganda. Dehumanizing Tutsis and Jews made people more likely to conform to hateful ideologies. Constant exposure to the radio during the Rwandan Genocide played a large role in how neighbors suddenly viewed Tutsis in a negative light and decided to kill them. The power of group mentality greatly influences the susceptibility of someone to conformity, which was the main reason that the Rwandan Genocide was able to happen. The notion of the “other” – Jews in the Holocaust and Tutsis in the Rwandan Genocide – has been popularly used to gain unity against these groups and has led to killings. This idea of superiority of one group over another also comes from feelings of conformity and “ordinary” people following more radical leaders.

Applying Psychology Today in Our Social Roles

Today, we may not face choices like the Nazis or be placed in a position of great power over other human beings. However, it is important to remember that people are hard-wired to follow group mentality rather than stay true to their own principles. Social roles today, and historically, have warned us about the dangers of putting ourselves above other people, especially if we are in positions of power. In the end, our human responsibility is completely unique to each of us, but developing strong morals can help overcome the simplicity of conformity.

Works Cited

Browning, Christopher. “Ordinary Men.” Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland.

McLeod, Saul. “Solomon Asch – Conformity Experiment.” Simply Psychology, 28 Dec. 2018, Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.

Zimbardo, Philip. “The Story: An Overview of the Experiment.” Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo, Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.

© Copyright 2020 Moosmosis – All rights reserved

All rights reserved. This essay or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher. 

Please Like our Facebook page to support! 🙂

17 replies »

  1. Really interesting! I wonder how that all plays out online now with bots and AI giving powerful people ‘likes’ on social media!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thanks for your kind comment, Psychowlogist! That’s a fascinating topic you bring up on AI/bots and social media. Hopefully, more people can be cognizant that a large number of likes is not synonymous with accurate facts on social media! Happy Easters, my friend!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I enjoyed reading this article about psychology and gained plenty of information from it! Thank you for sharing such an beautiful article😊


  3. I especially like your conclusion that we are responsible for our own actions which involves choosing to develop a strong moral code.

    Liked by 2 people

  4. A great article covering the aspects of conformity 👍🏻 I think for me the main reason behind these events is the group mentality and Deindividuation

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Group think and authority definitely have a big influence on people’s actions. That’s why it’s really important to self analyze and consider if your own actions are what you believe in or if you just want to conform. I really liked your post!

    Liked by 1 person

  6. I absolutely loved the post. So thought provoking and it took my attention as I’ve recently studied asch and zimbardo experiments in my organisational behaviour course!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. Very interesting finding and experiments. This data isn’t common among people who don’t belong to the field and hence makes it more interesting. Thank you for sharing !


Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s