Philip Zimbardo, the Stanford psychologist, died on October 14 at his home in San Francisco at 91. Expandedly, Zinbardo’s experiment explored how environments influence behaviour. He is one of the world’s most renowned psychologists.
Zimbardo is well-known for his controversial 1971 study, The Stanford Prison Experiment. The research, intended to examine the psychological experiences of imprisonment, and disclose the shocking extent to which circumstances can change individual behaviour.
To this present day, the research is used as a case study in psychology classes to highlight both the psychology of evil and the ethics of performing psychological research with human subjects.
Stanford confirmed the death but did not provide a cause of his death.
Philip Zuimbardo’s research went far beyond the prison experiment. His career spanned over five decades, during his career, Zimbardo examined topics including attitude change, persuasion, cognitive dissonance, hypnosis, alienation, time perspective, shyness, altruism, and compassion.
At the “core” of his interest, Zimbardo told the public Psychology Today, was “the process of transformation of human nature”.
His prison experiment was the one that garnered the greatest attention, such as the questions about the ethics of that study.
In an 1871 Stanford News Service press release, Zimbardo said that most people go about their daily lives assuming that they have more control over their behaviour than they do. He went on, “We are often unaware of the tremendous power which social situations exert upon us to shape, guide, and manipulate our behaviour.”
In 2011, Zimbardo received an honor decorated degree from SWPS University in Warsaw, in 2003. Zimbardo along with University of Rome La Sapienza scholars Gian Vittorio Caprara and Claudio Barbaranelli were awarded the sarcastic Ig Nobel Prize for psychology for their report “Politicialns’ Uniquely Simple Personalities”.
Dr. Zimbardo drew on his prison experiment and the events at Abu Gharib in his 2007 book, “The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil”.
Dr. Zimbardo wrote that although you probably think of yourself as having a consistent personality across time and space, that is likely not to be true. He also added that you are not the same person working alone as you are in a group. In a romantic setting vs an educational one; when you are with close friends or in an anonymous crowd.
Dr. Zimbardo was the prison superintendent, and he was criticized for the role for assuming because he was no longer a neutral observer but an active participant in that research.
Zimbardo retired in 2003 and the Stanford Alumni Association named him the 2007 recipient of the Richard W. Lyman Award for extraordinary volunteer service to the university.
Zimbardo is survived by his wife, 52, and one son and two daughters. He adored four grandchildren, Clay Doyle, Philip and Victoria Zimbardo, and Taylor Epstein-Bliss.