I'm wondering how much of this experiment was really the result of a lot of bright, high-achieving undergraduates guessing Professor Zimbardo's password -- he wanted dramatic results, and they obliged.
It would be nice if this were true. It's not entirely implausible, either.
Note that "it would be nice if this were true" should count as evidence against it actually being true, because humans are more likely to generate false positives for desirable hypotheses.
In March, a user on Reddit emailed psychologist Philip Zimbardo (leader of the Stanford Prison Experiment) to arrange an "IAmA" interview. Zimbardo agreed to answer the top 5 questions from this thread. Yesterday his answers were posted here.
The chosen questions touched on research ethics, what he originally expected to learn from the experiment, the role of psychoactive drugs in society, reading recommendations and more.
After responding, Zimbardo posed a question of his own to Reddit: