Stanley Milgram

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“They Knew That There Would Likely Be Some Levels Of Stress”

May 8, 2015 in Books, Excerpts, Film, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

One revelation from the Reddit AMA conducted by Philip Zimbardo, still best known for the infamous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, a dress rehearsal more or less for Abu Ghraib, was that the psychologist was high school classmates with Stanley Milgram, author of the equally controversial “Obedience to Authority” study. That must have been some high school! Zimbardo was joined by writer Nikita Coulombe, to discuss their new book Man (Dis)connected. A few exchanges follow about the notorious test at Stanford.

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Question:

If you had a chance to do the Stanford Prison Experiment again, what would you do differently?

Philip Zimbardo:

Yes I would, I would have only played the role of researcher and there would be someone above me, who would be the superintendent of the prison and when things got out of hand I would have been in a better position to terminate the study earlier and more appropriately.

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Question:

In context of the famous prison experiment, when you were first organizing it, what were some of the specific dangers you tried to avoid?

Philip Zimbardo:

We selected young men who were physically healthy and psychologically normal, we had prior arrangements with student health if that was necessary. Each student was given informed consent, so they knew that there would likely be some levels of stress, so they had some sense of what was to come. Physical violence by the guards, especially if there was a revolt, solitary confinement beyond the established one hour limit, but primarily trying to minimise acts of sexual degradation.

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Question:

Being particularly interested in social psychology, I’m a big fan of what you have accomplished through your research. I was wondering what really got you interested in social psychology, and your research is connected to that of Stanley Milgram, another favourite psychologist of mine – so what I’m asking is what initially got you into this field of psychology, and what did you think of Milgram’s research when you first came across it?
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Philip Zimbardo:

Thank you. I was interested in psychology from a young age: I grew up in the Bronx in the 1930s and started wondering why some people would go down certain paths, like joining a gang, while others didn’t. I was also high school classmates with Stanley Milgram; we were both asking the same questions.

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Question:

If there was a film adaptation dramatizing the events of the Stanford Prison Experiment, who would you want to play you?

Philip Zimbardo:

Glad you asked the question, amazingly there is a new Hollywood movie that just premiered at the Sundance film festival to great reviews winning lots of prizes titled The Stanford Prison Experiment. It will have national showings in America starting in July and hopefully in Europe in the Fall. I was hoping that the actor who would play me would be either Johnny Depp or Andy Garcia but they were not available so instead a wonderful young actor, Billy Crudup is Dr Z. You may be aware of his great acting in Almost Famous and Dr Manhattan in Watchmen.•

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“Jesus Christ, I’m burning up inside–don’t you know?”:

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“Milgram Was A Fantastic Dramaturg”

January 28, 2015 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Fifty years after Stanley Milgram’s “Obedience” study at Yale shocked the world, there’s dispute as to whether the Milgram experiment actually proved casual inhumanity is our default mode. Technologists like Jonah Peretti swear by Milgram, whereas others have begun to swear at him. From Cari Romm at the Atlantic:

To mark the 50th anniversary of the experiments’ publication (or, technically, the 51st), the Journal of Social Issues released a themed edition in September 2014 dedicated to all things Milgram. “There is a compelling and timely case for reexamining Milgram’s legacy,” the editors wrote in the introduction, noting that they were in good company: In 1964, the year after the experiments were published, fewer than 10 published studies referenced Milgram’s work; in 2012, that number was more than 60.

It’s a trend that surely would have pleased Milgram, who crafted his work with an audience in mind from the beginning. “Milgram was a fantastic dramaturg. His studies are fantastic little pieces of theater. They’re beautifully scripted,” said Stephen Reicher, a professor of psychology at the University of St. Andrews and a co-editor of the Journal of Social Issues’ special edition. Capitalizing on the fame his 1963 publication earned him, Milgram went on to publish a book on his experiments in 1974 and a documentary, Obedience, with footage from the original experiments.

But for a man determined to leave a lasting legacy, Milgram also made it remarkably easy for people to pick it apart. The Yale University archives contain boxes upon boxes of papers, videos, and audio recordings, an entire career carefully documented for posterity. Though Milgram’s widow Alexandra donated the materials after his death in 1984, they remained largely untouched for years, until Yale’s library staff began to digitize all the materials in the early 2000s. Able to easily access troves of material for the first time, the researchers came flocking.

“There’s a lot of dirty laundry in those archives,” said Arthur Miller, a professor emeritus of psychology at Miami University and another co-editor of the Journal of Social Issues. “Critics of Milgram seem to want to—and do find—material in these archives that makes Milgram look bad or unethical or, in some cases, a liar.”•

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“Oh, I’m not going to kill that man.”

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“One Theory Says That We Learn Things When We Get Punished”

July 31, 2014 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

Here’s the 1962 film of Stanley Milgram’s “Obedience to Authority” experiments at Yale, which were shocking in more than one sense, a supposed study of memory which was really just a measurement of complicitous savagery. A companion (if in spirit) to Philip Zimbardo’s “Stanford Prison Experiment,” conducted a decade later, which was also ethically dubious and yielded surprisingly sad results.

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“In This Setting, I Willingly Expose My Throat To Man With A Razorblade”

July 2, 2014 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Do you spend some time (like I do) during each haircut or shave considering how simple it would be for that relative stranger with the sharp implement standing above you, who doesn’t always seem like the most balanced person, to do some seriously bodily harm? In certain contexts, we allow for roles which make us vulnerable but which perhaps also protect us, each of us responding (usually) to the expectations placed on us.

A film about social psychologist Stanley Milgram and his experiments in control.

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“Frustration Definitely Provokes Human Aggression”

August 30, 2012 in Science/Tech, Videos | Permalink

A two-minute clip from “Human Aggression” by Stanley Milgram, author of the controversial 1962 “Obedience” social psychology experiment.

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“Not Everyone Has The Capacity To Do Anything Regardless Of The Circumstances”

June 7, 2012 in Books, Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Psychologist Philip Zimbardo, mastermind of the notorious Stanford Prison Experiment, which provided a chilling look at how quickly and thoroughly jailers can become dehumanized–a dress rehearsal, if you will, for Abu Ghraib–just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. He discusses the SPE and his new e-book about the effect Internet porn and video games have on boys. A few exchanges about Stanford.

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Question:

For those unaware, modern-day psychological studies (or anything even remotely involving testing humans) have to go through fairly rigorous scrutiny from ethics committees to ensure that no harm lasting damage is done. Up until relatively recent times these committees weren’t necessary and researchers had much more freedom – often at the expense of their subjects.

I remember seeing a video of one of John Watson’s experiments, on operant conditioning, where he would purposely scare a baby every time it showed interest in animals. Eventually the baby was conditioned to fear the animals.

In short: You learn a lot without ethics, but you often harm the people involved.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo:

In the olden days researchers had total power to do anything to their “subjects” whether human or animal, children or prisoners– in the name of science. Some abused this privilege and Human Research committees were developed in order to create a better balance of power between researchers and their participant,and are now essential for the conduct of all research. A problem is created however, when they become excessively conservative and reject almost all research that could conceivably “stress” participants even by having them think about a stressful situation. Thus nothing like the Milgram study or my Stanford Prison study could ever be done again. Is that good? Is that bad? Open issue for debate.

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Question: 

I think we need to be careful when using expectations in describing how people act in these situations though. For example with Milgram I think obedience to authority was more of a factor than expectations. Thus the higher success rate(shock rate)with the teacher wearing a lab coat. There are other problems with Milgram too, he used the same teacher each time who got efficient at producing a specific result, which is interesting I think when we use him in talking about perpetrators of genocide. But it’s worth noting that the individual encouraging the shocks was also learning. With the SPE, Zimbardo got results from ‘irst timers’ which is surprising, or not depending on your view.

Dr. Philip Zimbardo:

In the Milgram study, SPE, and many other similar studies on the power of social situations to transform the behavior of good people in evil directions, the conclusion is the majority can easily be led to do so, but there is always a minority who resist, who refuse to obey or comply. In one sense, we can think of them as heroic because they challenge the power of negative influence agents (gangs, drugs dealers, sex traffickers; in the prison study it’s me, in the Milgram experiment it’s Milgram). The good news is there’s always a minority who resist, so no, not everyone has the capacity to do anything regardless of the circumstances. I recently started a non-profit, the Heroic Imagination Project in an attempt to increase the amount of resistors who will do the right thing when the vast majority are doing the wrong thing. There needs to be more research though, and we are in the process of studying heroism and the psychology of whistleblowing; curiously, there is very little so far compared to the extensive body of research on aggression, violence, and evil.

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Question: 

Based on your results, how would you suggest American imprisonment be altered, if at all?

Dr. Philip Zimbardo:

Shortly after the time we first published the results of SPE, the head graduate student of the research, Craig Haney, and I became very much involved in prison reform in California, working with the department of corrections, teaching courses on the psychology of imprisonment, organizing courses for prisoners in Soledad prison, being expert witnesses in trials about solitary confinement as cruel and unusual punishment, and also working to highlight the psychologically and physically devastating effects of “supermax” prisons.

However, in 1973, there were about 350,000 Americans in prison. This year there are more than 2 million Americans caged in the prison system at local, state, and federal levels. More than twice as much as any other country in the world. It is a national disgrace as far as I’m concerned, and with those big numbers goes reduced programs for rehabilitation, recreation, therapy, and really any concern about prisoners ever being able to live a normal life outside the prison. And this is because 3 factors: economic, political, and racial. Prisons have become a big business for many communities; many prisons are becoming privatized, which means they are for profit only. They have become political in so far as politicians all want to be seen as tough on crime, encouraging prosecutors and judges to give prisoners maximum sentences, including 25 years to life, for non-violent offenses. Racially, prisons have become dumping grounds for black and hispanic young men, so that there are now more of these young men in prisons than in college.

The whole system is designed not to help prisoners. At this point, my optimism about improving the American prison system has been severely tested and it will really take a major change in public opinion and also in basic attitudes from the top down. It’s a systemic problem; it’s not like some warden in a particular prison is a bad guy, everyone’s attitudes needs to change to become more humane. This needs to start with the President, governors, and mayors taking a strong compassionate stance. Pragmatically, citizens have to realize that it costs them through their taxes $1 million to keep one prisoner locked up for 25 years.”

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“Jesus Christ, I’m burning up inside–don’t you know?”:

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“Often I Find Myself And Others, Too, Behaving In A Way That I Deplore”

May 4, 2012 in Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Environment influences mindset, no doubt, and someone’s perception of the world may vary depending of where they live or grew up. But the idea that cities make people more unfeeling, that the crowd relieves us of our capacity for goodness, seems a popular but unwarranted stereotype. But that’s the premise of “City and the Self,” by Stanley Milgram and Harry From, 1972.

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