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Significance: Demonstrated the power of social roles, authority, and situational influences on behavior. Findings: Participants quickly embraced their assigned roles as guards or prisoners, leading to unethical and abusive behavior by 'guards'.

Significance: Investigated the extent to which people would obey an authority figure when ordered to harm another person. Findings: A high proportion of participants delivered what they believed were harmful electric shocks to another person.

Significance: Provided an example of how classical conditioning can lead to phobia development. Findings: A young child was conditioned to fear a white rat, which then generalized to other white and furry objects.

Significance: Highlighted the importance of caregiving and companionship in social and cognitive development. Findings: Rhesus monkeys preferred the comfort of a cloth mother over a wire mother with food.

Significance: Pioneered the study of classical conditioning in behavioral science. Findings: Dogs were conditioned to salivate upon hearing a bell that previously accompanied food, demonstrating a conditioned response.

Significance: Showed that children are able to learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observational learning. Findings: Children mimicked aggressive behavior towards a Bobo doll that they had observed from adults.

Significance: Demonstrated the power of conformity in groups and how social pressure can influence one's perception and judgment. Findings: Individuals conformed to incorrect group judgments about the length of lines even when the correct answer was clear.

Significance: Led to research on the 'bystander effect', illustrating how the presence of others can deter individuals from intervening in an emergency. Findings: Witnesses did not call for help or assist the victim, leading to her death and to the study of diffusion of responsibility.

Significance: Provided empirical support for the cognitive dissonance theory, which explains how people change attitudes or beliefs to reconcile inconsistencies. Findings: Subjects who were paid less to lie about a boring task reported more enjoyment, suggesting a reduction in dissonance.