Coverage of the Stanford Prison Experiment in Introductory Social Psychology Textbooks

Abstract

This study is concerned with the nature of the coverage in introductory social psychology textbooks of the Stanford prison experiment (SPE), given the many criticisms, especially recently, of the SPE. These criticisms concern both the study’s methodology and the situationist explanation of the outcome. Ten textbooks were analyzed for coverage of the SPE and its ensuing criticisms. Coverage of the SPE was found to be slightly less than that in introductory psychology textbooks, and the majority of the texts providing coverage either provided no or minimal coverage of the criticisms. Contributing factors to and possible explanations for such coverage are discussed. One explanation is applied to textbook coverage of the Kitty Genovese story and a critique exposing its inaccuracies.