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National Teaching Fellowship

In September 2010 Alex Haslam will receive a National Teaching Fellowhip from England's Higher Education Academy in recognition of the work that he and Steve Reicher have done on the BBC Prison Study over the past eight years.

We plan to use the award to enhance this website in ways that encourage teachers and students to engage with the range of issues that the study addresses. If you have any suggestions about how we might best do this, please contact us.

BPS Award

In April 2010, work on the BBC Prison Study received the British Psychology Society’s Annual Award for Excellence in Teaching. The award recognized “the influence the study has had on the social psychology curriculum and [the researchers'] commitment to supporting psychology teachers”.

The award was conferred at the BPS Annual Conference held at Stratford-upon-Avon. As award winners, Steve Reicher and Alex Haslam both gave talks on the study at the conference.

Development of new teaching resource

In January 2009, a DVD of the BBC Prison Study was released by Online Classroom, a specialist producer of educational resources. The DVD contains an overview of the study's purpose, structure and findings, together with a range of additonal resources. Further details are available here.   

Website launch

The website for the BBC Prison Study was formally launched on September 20, 2008 by Berkeley Economics Professor and Nobel Laureate, George Akerlof. He opened the site at a meeting of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) in Ottowa, Canada. Findings from the study were also presented at the meeting which was organized as part of CIFAR's Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being program.

Upcoming talks related to the BBC Prison Study (contact us for details)

• (SR) The science of the BBC Prison Study. Award address to the British Psychology Society, April 14, 2010.
• (AH) Bringing the science of the BBC Prison Study into the classroom. Award address to the British Psychology Society, April 14, 2010.

Recent publications that discuss aspects of the BBC Prison Study

• Haslam, S. A., & Reicher, S. D. (in press). The requirement for a non-individualistic psychology of individual differences: Evidence from studies of tyranny and oppression. European Review of Personality.
• Jetten, J., Haslam, C., Haslam, S. A., & Branscombe, N. (2009). The social cure. Scientific American Mind, 20(5), 26-33.

This is the cover article in the September issue, and it examines the critical role that group life plays in promoting well-being. The paper discusses data from a range of contexts, including the BBC Prison Study.

• Haslam, S. A. & Reicher, S. D. (2008). Questioning the banality of evil. The Psychologist, 21, 16-19.
• Reicher, S. D, Haslam, S. A., & Rath, R. (2008). Making a virtue of evil: A five-step social identity model of the development of collective hate. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2, 1313-1344.

Recent talks

• (AH) The path to tyranny: Group failure, social identification, and leadership. One-day student conference. London, December 8, 2009.
• (AH) Questioning the banality of evil: Beyond Milgram and Zimbardo. One-day student conference. London, November 17, 2009.
• (AH) Beyond imagination?: The BBC Prison Study and the Social Psychology of Resistance. Association of Teachers of Psychology (ATP) Annual Conference, Exeter, July 10, 2009.
• (SR) Why people do evil - and how group psychology can help us stop them. University of Greenwich Annual Psychology Lecture, King William Building, Maritime Campus, March 5, 2009, 4pm
• (SR) The psychology of tyrannical leadership. UK Defence Academy, Shrivenham, January 9, 2008.
• (AH) New perspectives on the psychology of tyranny: Rethinking the role of roles. London Metropolitan University, December 11, 2008.
• (AH) The psychology of tyranny: Rethinking the lessons of Milgram and Zimbardo. One-day student conference on AS/A2 Psychology Core Studies. London, December 1, 2008.
• (SR) Making a virtue of evil: A five-step social identity model of the development of collective hate. Keynote address to 10th Norwegian Conference of Social and Community Psychology. Trondheim, Norway. 7th November 2008.

Recent discussion of the BBC Prison Study

• Reynolds, K. J., Turner, J. C., Branscombe, N. R., Mavor, K. I., Bizumic, B., & Subasic, E. (in press). Interactionism in personality and social psychology: An integrated approach to understanding the mind and behaviour. European Journal of Personality.
• Livingstone, A. G., Spears, R, Manstead, A. S. R, & Bruder, M. (2009). Illegitimacy and identity threat in (inter)action: Predicting intergroup orientations among minority group members. British Journal of Social Psychology, 48, 755-775.
• Markus, G. (2008). Blinded by the light: Aspiration and inspiration in political psychology. Political Psychology, 29, 313-330.
• Banyard, P. (2007). Tyranny and the tyrant. The Psychologist, 20, 494-495.