Philip Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment) answers questions on Reddit (Link)

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:

I ask you: Is it good that the Milgram and Zimbardo studies were done, or wrong? Should they be allowed to be replicated with interesting variations (such as female guards and prisoners) if institutional guidelines are imposed and followed? Or is it better for society not to know about the nature of the "dark side" of human nature?

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:

I ask you: Is it good that the Milgram and Zimbardo studies were done, or wrong? Should they be allowed to be replicated with interesting variations (such as female guards and prisoners) if institutional guidelines are imposed and followed? Or is it better for society not to know about the nature of the "dark side" of human nature?

I appreciated the candor Zimbardo put into his book, but that candor underscores your criticisms. Milgram was far more rigorous in his controls, and in his ethics. If one were to "duplicate" Zimbardo, it would need to be done with confederates in the fashion of Milgram's experiments, and would likely boil down to being an extension of Milgram.

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Philip Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment) answers questions on Reddit (Link)

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Philip Zimbardo (Stanford Prison Experiment) answers questions on Reddit (Link)

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