Haslam, Alexander and Reicher, Stephen. “When Prisoners Take Over the Prison”

In this paper, psychologists Alexander Haslam and Stephen Reicher explore the notion of resistance in relation to incarceration in the context of their BBC Prison Study. According to Haslam and Reicher, social psychology experiments such as the Stanford prison experiment have focused too much on the perpetrator’s side and have considered the prisoners’ perspective largely as that of a helpless victim, neglecting the possibility of resistance. According to Haslam and Reicher the Stanford prison experiment had a “one-sided emphasis on conformity and opression” (156). Haslam and Reicher explain how their BBC Prison Study allowed them to observe the workings of social identity in a prison-scenario and the effect that it has on resistance. They furthermore illustrate the importance of social identity and resistance with the help of three historical case studies: The Maze in Northern-Ireland, Robben Island in South Africa, and Sobibor in Poland. As main impulses behind their research, Haslam and Reicher name “social identity as a source of power”, “the importance of leadership and organization”, and “the importance of studying group processes in the context of developing intergroup dynamics” (174).

Haslam, Alexander, S. and Stephen D. Reicher. “When Prisoners Take Over the Prison: A Social Psychology of Resistance”. Personality and Social Psychology Review 16:2. (2012): 154-179.