The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Story of Problematic Behavioral Health Research

The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures

Behavioral health is certainly within the bounds of medicine and, thereby, medical history. The Stanford Prison Experiment asked the question of whether the environment of prison compelled bad behavior from those within the system. In order to study this, this 1970's university psychology experiment went to extreme lengths to turn its research subjects (students) into faux prisoners and prison guards in the basement of the department's building.
It might not surprise you to find out that it did not go well.
Ethics in research are indeed important, as you'll appreciate after listening to this one.
References:

1. Wikipedia Page on the Stanford Prison Experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
2. PDF of original publication of the Stanford Prison Experiment: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/ijcp1973.pdf
3. Psychology Today interview with Philip Zimbardo: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/articles/200009/emperor-the-edge
4. Wikipedia Page on Philip Zimbardo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Zimbardo
5. Incarceration Rates Reference: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAiP2tBhBXEiwACslfnvW5miAa1VS0WqISsYuBYwIY52hMWPMlcVUG3Kbs_xNgzE4pG2DAuxoC6gMQAvD_BwE
6. For further reading: The Milgram Experiment Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment
7. “The Stanford Prison Experiment” website: https://www.prisonexp.org/
8. New Yorker Magazine Column, ‘The Real Lessons of The Stanford Prison Experiment’: https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/the-real-lesson-of-the-stanford-prison-experiment
9. One of many bootlegs on YouTube of a BBC documentary on the experiment containing actual video footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4txhN13y6A
10. Hawthorne Effect, wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect
11. PDF of October 1971 Congressional Testimony by Zimbardo: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/congress.pdf
12. Preprint of Haslam’s Article, “Identity Leadership in the Stanford Prison Experiment”, in press in American Psychologist: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/b7crx to avoid paywall, noted on PubMed here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31380665/

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