One of the bright lights of social science in the past half century is also one of the most criticized. Phil Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment, where mentally and physically healthy college student were randomized to be guards or prisoners. Its common material in the ‘research ethics’ unit for Psych 101 or masters level research methods courses. I think he is a bright light because he has learned from his most notorious work what the rest of us need to learn–that we are inextricably shaped by our surroundings, and that while we are accountable for our individual behavior, that leaders are also to be held accountable for the environment in which individuals make behavior choices.
He comes to our attention recently because he’s written a new book–the Lucifer Effect–which links his experiment with our recent experience at Abu Grahib. I’m going to make sure its in my next Amazon shipment. In a NYT video interview he does what I think is one of the most essentially spiritual things a person can do, he refuses to answer a question that was posed to him in black and white–good and evil–he is asked what he thinks about Anne Frank’s conclusion that after all, people are essentially good. After all is said in done, I say score one each for both Anne and Phil, and sit with that for a while before you draw any quick conclusions about any of this most fundamental of human questions.
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