The Stanford prison experiment, conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, is one of the most famous and spectacular experiments in social psychology. Twenty-two students were involved in a reconstitution of the prison environment in the basement of Stanford University where some of the participants played the role of the prisoners and the other the guards. Supposed to last two weeks, the experiment is shortened after six days only because the situation had degenerated violently. It’s often evoked to show the strong influence that the context can have on our behavior: every man, placed in such a situation can potentially become a « monster ».
However, in his book “History of a lie: investigation of the Stanford experience”, Thibault Le Texier gives us another version of this experiment that he describes as a scientific fraud. According to his survey: the conclusions of this study were written in advance, the methodology lacks scientific rigor, its course has been manipulated and finally the interpretation of the data was biased. According to Le Texier, Zimabardo used this experience to become popular by exploiting the libertarian anti-prison activism present at that time. Le Texier thinks that Zimbardo was also intended to use it to allow social psychology to win the « war » which opposes it to the psychology of the personality to explain some human behavior.
This is not the first time that Zimbardo’s experience is facing criticism. He answers many of them on the website dedicated to this experience. According to him, none of his detractors has provided evidence strong enough to affirm that he has changed the conclusions drawn from this experience. According to him, he did everything in his power to make the documents of his experience public: nothing was hidden.
This controversy, whether founded or not, pushes us to maintain a critical spirit, even in front of key studies in psychology.
Words I have learned :
- shortened= raccourcie
- degenerated= dégénéré
- evoked = évoqué
- fraud = fraude
- rigor = rigueur
- detractors = détracteurs
Bibliography