Architect of the Stanford Prison Experiment and social psychologist Dr Philip Zimbardo died last month, aged 91.
A flamboyant figure, he did much to popularise and promote his famous experiment, crafting a narrative about the power of situations to turn good people into monsters.
But a recent documentary and book have seriously challenged Zimbardo’s claims for his research, encouraging us to question Zimbardo’s overblown claims which I argued both in my PhD and in this article in New Scientist was more showbiz than science.
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment and Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority experiments are the two most famous experiments in social psychology. Coincidentally, Zimbardo and Milgram were classmates at James Monroe high school in The Bronx.
Zimbardo was the last of a generation of social psychologists whose experiments were more moral fables than hard science.
I interviewed him several times and he was always generous in sharing memories of colleagues and insights into scientific storytelling. Vale PhilipZimbardo.
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