How does role-playing influence the attitude-behaviour relationship?

How does role-playing influence the attitude-behaviour relationship?

Now you should have a good understanding of when and why attitudes predict behaviour, but can our behaviour predict our attitudes? There has been a significant amount of research that looked at how role-playing (that is playing a particular role) can influence our behaviour. In particular researchers have been looking at how the actions expected of those who occupy a particular social position influence their attitudes.

Perhaps the most famous of these studies is Zimbardo's Prison Experiment. Philip Zimbardo created a mock prison in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University in the 1970s. In this study, healthy young men who were psychologically normal on all tested dimensions were randomly assigned to act as "prisoners" or "guards" in a mock jail study. Over the course of 6 days, the behaviour of prisoners to the guards became so aggressive that the study had to be ended early. Throughout the study there was "a growing confusion between role-playing and self-identity...This prison which we had created...was absorbing us as creatures of its own reality" (Zimbardo, 1972).

Did you watch it? Frightening isn't it? Simply playing the role of a prison guards made these people sadistic prison guards. Role-playing had the same effect on the prisoners - play a passive prisoner and you become one. Sometimes, we are how we act.


In what other cases might role-playing influence our attitudes? The Zimbardo case is a negative example, but there are also positive examples of how role-playing can influence your attitudes. Again, remember that answering these questions can help you prepare for your tests.