Which of the following best describes the main point of the Stanford Prison Experiment?

• A. It proved that emotional responses are solely determined by physiological arousal.
• B. It demonstrated how situational factors and assigned social roles can lead ordinary people to engage in extreme behaviors.
• C. It established that intelligence is primarily inherited and not influenced by environment.
• D. It showed that memory can be easily manipulated through suggestion.

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Step 1: Understand the context of the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was a psychological study conducted to investigate how people conform to social roles, particularly in a simulated prison environment.
2. Step 2: Recognize that the experiment involved participants being randomly assigned roles as either guards or prisoners, and observed how these roles influenced their behavior over time.
3. Step 3: Identify the main finding of the experiment: that situational factors and the power of assigned social roles can lead ordinary individuals to exhibit extreme and sometimes abusive behaviors.
4. Step 4: Compare this finding to the other options provided, noting that the experiment did not focus on physiological arousal, intelligence inheritance, or memory manipulation.
5. Step 5: Conclude that the best description of the main point of the Stanford Prison Experiment is its demonstration of the powerful influence of situational factors and social roles on human behavior.