Philip Zimbardo
American social psychologist who led the Stanford prison experiment
Stanford psychologist who ran the 1971 Stanford prison experiment and later wrote The Lucifer Effect. He also wrote on shyness and time perspective. The prison study has been heavily criticised for its methods and ethics.
Why this person matters
The Stanford prison experiment is among the best-known studies in introductory psychology and is often set beside Milgram's work. Its standing is contested: archival research and published critiques question how far the guards' behaviour arose spontaneously. Christina Maslach, then a recent Stanford PhD, pressed Zimbardo to see what was happening and helped bring the study to a close.
Main contributions
Stanford prison experiment
In 1971, 24 male college students chosen from 75 applicants were assigned to be guards or prisoners in a mock prison at Stanford, with funding from the US Office of Naval Research. Planned for two weeks, the study was ended on day 6. Zimbardo interpreted the results as showing the power of the situation.
Shyness and time perspective
His research covered shyness and time perspective. Shyness: What It Is, What to Do About It (1977) offered practical advice to shy people, and The Time Paradox (2008, with John Boyd) addressed how people relate to past, present and future.
The Lucifer Effect
Written after the Abu Ghraib scandal and published in 2007, the book argued that situational 'bad barrel' forces, and not only individual 'bad apples', shaped soldiers' behaviour.
Context and limits
Zimbardo acted as both researcher and prison superintendent. Thibault Le Texier's 2019 article in American Psychologist, based on participant testimony and the archive, argued that guards were directly asked to behave in certain ways. Haslam, Reicher and Van Bavel (2019) concluded from the archive that the experimenters encouraged the guards to act tough. Zimbardo called the lack of an independent scientific observer the study's major flaw, but rejected the view that the criticisms undermine its core message about situational influence.
In your introductory course
Social psychology.Students meet the prison study in the social psychology chapter, usually with Milgram, and in discussions of research ethics. Instructors now commonly teach it together with the critiques.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 12.1. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1959
Received his Yale PhD, advised by Neal E. Miller.
- 1968
Joined the Stanford University faculty.
- 1971
Ran the Stanford prison experiment and ended it after six days.
- 2007
Published The Lucifer Effect, applying the prison study to events such as Abu Ghraib.
Sources
- Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo's site), Response to criticsOriginal work. Text passages inspected.
- Stanford Prison Experiment (Zimbardo's site), home pageOriginal work. Institutional biography inspected.
- University of St Andrews Research Portal, Haslam, Reicher and Van Bavel, Rethinking the nature of cruelty (2019), abstractUniversity. Abstract inspected.
- WEAU (Associated Press), Stanford psychologist behind the controversial Stanford Prison Experiment dies at 91Reference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Stanford prison experimentReference work. Reference article inspected.
- Wikipedia, Philip ZimbardoReference work. Reference article inspected.