Mar 8, 2007

Professor gives final lecture

Philip Zimbardo best known for controversial Stanford prison experiment

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer

Renowned psychology professor Philip Zimbardo set the mood for his final lecture at Stanford University on Wednesday by playing the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" as students and faculty packed the large classroom.

Celebrating his 50th year of teaching psychology, Zimbardo, 73, highlighted some of his most famous research, notably the Stanford Prison Experiment, and drew parallels with his recent work as an expert witness in military trials on the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

Zimbardo said his research into the nature of evil behavior led to his belief that people are not born with "bad dispositions" but rather are shaped by systemic forces and their situations.

"When you disengage your morality, you are a different person," he said.

As a child coming from a "poor Sicilian background," Zimbardo said he was fascinated by the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

"What was in that chemical? What is interesting to all of us is those transformations of character," he said.

Following seven years of teaching at New York University, which he called "a dismal dungeon," and one year at Columbia University, Zimbardo arrived at Stanford in 1968. In mid-August 1971, he conducted the famous prison experiment, in which 24 male college students "selected as the most normal" were randomly assigned the role of either prisoner or guard. After releasing five participants suffering emotional breakdowns from the increasingly degrading guard behavior, Zimbardo was forced to call off the experiment, which was intended to last two weeks.

"We had to end the study after six days for being out of control," he said.

He said the experiment highlighted the effects of stripping away standard labels of individuality and the "evil of inaction," noting that at no point did even the "good guards" intervene in the others' abuses.

"Most evil things are done in groups," he said. He noted that in both the prison experiment and at Abu Ghraib, the most severe offenses occurred during the night shifts, highlighting the situational and systemic factors that can facilitate dehumanizing behavior.

As the defense's expert witness in the court martial of Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick, the highest-ranking officer charged in the Abu Ghraib abuses, Zimbardo stressed that conditions created by the military led to the Army reservists' inhumane treatment of prisoners, including 40 consecutive 12-hour days, "extreme stress and fear" from the prison's constant bombardment by insurgents, and the encouragement of techniques such as the use of dogs and stripping prisoners.

Zimbardo rejected former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's characterization of the soldiers as "bad apples," instead shifting responsibility to the military environment that fostered the abuse.

Stanford freshman Di Eaton said the lecture was "the most exciting event I've been to at Stanford yet."

And Sophomore Sonia Poltoratski said she was most impressed "by how Zimbardo addresses really pertinent issues."

David Spiegel, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford School of Medicine, called Zimbardo "a legendary teacher."

"He has changed the way we think about social influences," Spiegel said.

Zimbardo, who formally retired from Stanford in 2003, leaves next month to promote his new book, "The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil."


E-mail Kristina Peterson at kpeterson@dailynewsgroup.com.