Czy kontekst społeczno-kulturowy może wpłynąć na wyniki eksperymentu? Przypadek eksperymentu więziennego Zimbardo powtórzonego w Polsce przez Artura Żmijewskiego
Can Socio-Cultural Context Affect Experimental Results? The Case of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment Repeated in Poland by Artur Żmijewski

Summary/Abstract: The famous Phillip Zimbardo’s study (1971), known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, was repeated some tenyears ago in Poland by Artur Żmijewski, a video artist. His findings deserve the attention of social psychologistsdoing experimental research. The video released by Żmijewski in 2005 shows that his action ended witha completely different outcome than that of the original experiment: the participants themselves decidedto stop it. The difference may have been a consequence of the artist’s unconcern about full conformity withthe methodological rules the academics consider necessary to follow in conducting experiments. However,the impact of a particular socio-cultural context provides another plausible explanation of why Żmijewski’sresults depart from those obtained in the original study. Polish culture differs in a number of dimensionsfrom the culture that was taken for granted by Zimbardo in creating the Stanford experimental settingand informed his interpretation of the results obtained therein. This note offers an account of Żmijewski’sproject, as well as an explanation of its results in terms of cross-national comparisons. The author’s aim is toprovoke more discussion on the role of socio-cultural context in experimental research.

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