Within a few days the students internalized their roles. On the second day of the study, the prisoners protested and as punishment guards took away their beds. Going to the bathroom because a privilege for the model prisoners. Those playing prison guards took pleasure with inflicting cruelty. The Rosenhan study highlights the power of roles also.
Expectations associated with roles and statuses are also highlighted.
Altering the perceptions of others is very difficult. Rosenhan notes that often there is only a loose association between the person labeled mentally ill and the actual act. Often the label or status that we impose upon others becomes the primary tool for knowing how to respond to other individual . To put it in other words, if we see a person in a given role, certain expectations accompany that role. To explore this question, several of his graduate students went to psychiatric hospitals complaining of hearing voices.