Final answer:
In social psychology, an assistant who plays a role in an experimental situation is known as a confederate. They are used to explore the impact of social roles and situations on individual behavior.
Step-by-step explanation:
In social psychology, an assistant employed to play a role in a manipulated situation is known as a confederate. Social psychologists use confederates to examine the power of the situation and how it influences an individual's behavior. One of the most well-known examples of this practice is the Stanford prison experiment, which demonstrated the strong influence that assigned social roles and the accompanying norms and scripts had on participants' behavior. In such experiments, the confederate acts according to predefined behaviors that are part of the experimental design, influencing the main subjects' responses without their knowledge.
The purpose of employing a confederate is to control for variables and measure how different situations or the presence of specific social roles impact individuals. Confederates are a critical part of the methodology in many social psychology studies, providing researchers with a tool to understand how situational forces impact human behavior, thoughts, and feelings.