Philip Zimbardo was a psychologist known for his research in how individual behavior is shaped by social systems, situations and contexts.
Attitude change and cognitive dissonance Zimbardo undertook graduate school training in the Yale Attitude Change Program, headed by his mentor, Carl Hovland, an influential psychologist in his own right. This experience inspired a long term interest in the processes of attitude and behavior change produced by persuasion. Zimbardo's work on dissonance began during graduate school and he wrote his dissertation on this topic after being introduced to Leon Festinger's work by his Yale mentors in 1957. He conceptualized dissonance phenomena as the cognitive control of motivation, and demonstrated the power of this approach in a series of experimentally rigorous studies. This dissertation work was published in 1960 in the
Journal of abnormal and social psychology. Among other publications on principles of behavior and attitude change, the book he co-authored with Michael Leippe,
The Psychology of Attitude Change and Social Influence, part of the McGraw-Hill Series in Social Psychology, covered the relationships existing between social influence, attitude change and human behavior.
Mind control Zimbardo's long-term research interests included
cultic behavior. He conceived of
mind control as a phenomenon encompassing all the ways in which personal, social and institutional forces are exerted to induce compliance, conformity, belief, attitude, and value change in others. After working personally with several members of Jim Jones's Peoples Temple cult who had escaped the
massacre of cult members in the Guyana jungle in 1978, Zimbardo became fascinated with the intense psychological context and forces involved in cult recruitment, identification, and internalization, and how they could be resisted.
Psychology of evil The Lucifer Effect The Lucifer Effect was written in response to the
Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse military scandal, which occurred during the United States' invasion of Iraq. With renewed global interest in how the lessons of the Stanford Prison Study illuminate parallel dynamics, Zimbardo posited that, in contrast to the U.S. military's explanation of individual dispositional "bad apples", this was a situational "bad barrel" that shaped soldiers' behavior. With regards to the events that occurred at the
Abu Ghraib Detention Center, the defense team—including
Gary Myers—argued that it was not the prison guards and interrogators who were at fault for the physical and mental abuse of detainees but the
George W. Bush administration policies themselves. However, this does not deny nor excuse individual accountability. In the book, Zimbardo says that humans cannot be defined as good or evil because they may act as either depending on the situation. He believed that personality characteristics could play a role in how violent or submissive actions are manifested. According to Zimbardo, "Good people can be induced, seduced, and initiated into behaving in evil ways. They can also be led to act in irrational, stupid, self-destructive, antisocial, and mindless ways when they are immersed in 'total situations' that impact human nature in ways that challenge our sense of the stability and consistency of individual personality, of character, and of morality." In
The Journal of the American Medical Association, there are seven social processes that grease "the slippery slope of evil": • Mindlessly taking the first small step • Dehumanization of others • De-individuation of self (anonymity) • Diffusion of personal responsibility • Blind obedience to authority • Uncritical
conformity to group norms • Passive tolerance of evil through inaction or indifference Philip Zimbardo's research on the psychology of evil explores how situational and systemic factors can lead ordinary people to commit harmful or immoral acts, as demonstrated in studies on the dynamics of power, authority, conformity, dehumanization, and moral disengagement. Prisoners were confined to a cell with black steel-barred doors. The only furniture in each cell was a cot. Solitary confinement was a small unlit closet. Zimbardo's goal for the Stanford Prison study was to assess the psychological effect on a (randomly assigned) student of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. A 1997 article from the Stanford News Service described the experiment's goals in more detail: Zimbardo's primary reason for conducting the experiment was to focus on the power of roles, rules, symbols, group identity and situational validation of behavior that generally would repulse ordinary individuals. "I had been conducting research for some years on deindividuation, vandalism and dehumanization that illustrated the ease with which ordinary people could be led to engage in anti-social acts by putting them in situations where they felt anonymous, or they could perceive of others in ways that made them less than human, as enemies or objects," Zimbardo told the Toronto symposium in the summer of 1996.
Experiment Zimbardo himself participated with the study, playing the role of "prison superintendent" who could mediate disputes between guards and prisoners. He instructed guards to find ways to dominate the prisoners, not with physical violence, but with other tactics, such as sleep deprivation and punishment with
solitary confinement. Later in the experiment, as some guards became more aggressive, taking away prisoners' cots (so that they had to sleep on the floor), and forcing them to use buckets kept in their cells as toilets, and then refusing permission to empty the buckets, neither the other guards nor Zimbardo himself intervened. Knowing that their actions were observed but not rebuked, guards considered that they had implicit approval for such actions. In later interviews, several guards told interviewers that they knew what Zimbardo wanted to have happen, and they did their best to make that happen. Less than two full days into the study, one inmate pretended to have depression, uncontrolled rage and other mental dysfunctions. The prisoner was eventually released after screaming and acting in an unstable manner in front of the other inmates. He revealed later that he faked this "breakdown" to get out of the study early. This prisoner was replaced with one of the alternates. Zimbardo stated that the message from the study is that "situations can have a more powerful influence over our behaviour than most people appreciate, and few people recognize [that]." At the end of the study, after all the prisoners had been released, everyone was brought back into the same room for evaluation and to be able to get their feelings out in the open towards one another.
Criticisms Ethical concerns about the study often compare it to the
Milgram experiment, which was performed in 1961 at
Yale University by
Stanley Milgram, Zimbardo's former high school friend. More recently, Thibault Le Texier of the
University of Nice has examined the archives of the experiment, including videos, recordings, and Zimbardo's handwritten notes, and argued that "The guards knew what results the experiment was supposed to produce ... Far from reacting spontaneously to this
pathogenic social environment, the guards were given clear instructions for how to create it ... The experimenters intervened directly in the experiment, either to give precise instructions, to recall the purposes of the experiment, or to set a general direction ... In order to get their full participation, Zimbardo intended to make the guards believe that they were his research assistants." Since his original publication in French, Le Texier's accusations have been examined by science communicators in the United States. In his book
Humankind – a hopeful history (2020) historian
Rutger Bregman discusses charges that the whole experiment was faked and fraudulent; Bregman argued this experiment is often used as an example to show that people succumb easily to evil behavior, but Zimbardo was less than candid about the fact that he told the guards to act the way they did. More recently, an
American Psychological Association (APA) psychology article reviewed this work in detail and concluded that Zimbardo encouraged the guards to act the way they did, so rather than this behavior appearing on its own, it was generated by Zimbardo. In response to critics, Zimbardo asserted that none of the criticisms provide substantial evidence that undermines the main conclusion of the Stanford Prison Experiment—namely, the importance of understanding how systemic and situational forces can influence individual behavior, often without our awareness. He emphasized that the core message of the SPE is not to equate a psychological simulation of prison life with reality, nor to claim that prisoners and guards always or typically behave as they did in the experiment, but instead, the SPE serves as a cautionary tale about the potential consequences of underestimating how social roles and external pressures can shape our actions. Zimbardo highlighted the lessons gained from the experience and his advocacy for stronger ethical standards in research.
Testimony at Trial of Abu Ghraib Prison Guards Zimbardo discussed the similarities between the behavior of the participants in the
Stanford prison experiment, and the
prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. He did not accept the claim of
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Myers that the events were due to a few rogue soldiers and that it did not represent the military. Instead he considered the situation that the soldiers were in and considered the possibility that this situation might have induced the behavior that they displayed. He began with the assumption that the abusers were not "
bad apples" and were in a situation like that of the Stanford prison study, where physically and psychologically healthy people were behaving sadistically and brutalizing prisoners.
Shyness After the prison study, Zimbardo decided to search for ways he could use psychology to help people. In 1972 he launched the first systematic investigation into the psychology of shyness. His research team at Stanford conducted large-scale surveys, experimental research as well as cross-cultural research. In 1975 they started the Stanford Shyness Clinic and
The Shy Child, co-authored with Shirley Radl.
Time perspective Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory In 2008, Zimbardo published his work with
John Boyd about Time Perspective Theory and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) in
The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. In 2009, Zimbardo did his
Ted Talk "The Psychology of Time" about the Time Perspective Theory. According to this Ted Talk, there are six kinds of different Time Perspectives which are Past Positive TP (Time Perspective), Past Negative TP, Present Hedonism TP, Present Fatalism TP, Future Life Goal-Oriented TP and Future Transcendental TP. In 2012, Zimbardo, Richard Sword, and his wife Rosemary authored a book named
The Time Cure. Time Perspective therapy bears similarities to Pause Button Therapy, developed by
psychotherapist Martin Shirran, whom Zimbardo corresponded with and met at the first International Time Perspective Conference at the
University of Coimbra, Portugal. Zimbardo wrote the foreword to the second edition of Shirran's book on the subject.
Heroism After decades of researching the psychology of evil and social factors that make the majority conform to unethical behavior, Zimbardo devoted the latter part of his life to researching and promoting the psychology of heroism, including topics on disobedience to unjust authority, the phenomenon of whistle-blowers, and challenging the
bystander effect. Zimbardo's contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships. His last article with
Greater Good, "The Banality of Heroism", examined how ordinary people can become everyday heroes. In February 2010, Zimbardo was a guest presenter at the Science of a Meaningful Life seminar: Goodness, Evil, and Everyday Heroism, along with Greater Good Science Center Executive Director
Dacher Keltner. Zimbardo worked as an advisor to the anti-bullying organization
Bystander Revolution and appeared in the organization's videos to explain the
bystander effect and discuss the evil of inaction.
Heroic Imagination Project Zimbardo was the founder and director of the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting heroism in everyday life. Zimbardo published an article contrasting
heroism and
altruism in 2011 with Zeno Franco and Kathy Blau in the
Review of General Psychology. The Heroesʼ Square Initiative, Hösök Tere, founded in 2013 by Györgyi Orosz, Péter Halácsy and Philip Zimbardo, was designed to identify and provide tools to overcome the beliefs that prevent people from standing up for others – or even ourselves. The mission of the Heroesʼ Square Foundation and Heroesʼ Square Company is to provide the tools for people to think critically, dare to stand up and do for others, and act as everyday heroes. The Heroic Imagination Project has been in collaboration and mentorship with Giocherenda, an organization created by young migrants from Guinea, Gambia, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Morocco. Their use of creative games and HIP curriculum focuses on transforming divisive narratives, engaging in emancipatory storytelling, and fostering cooperation.
Giocherenda, which sounds like the Italian word
giocare (to play), comes from
Pulaar (a West African language) and it means “solidarity, awareness of interdependence, strength through sharing, the joy of doing things together”. In Portugal the Heroic Imagination Project is being implemented by the Look Around Association, with the impact evaluation being led by the Center for Research on Human Development of the Catholic University of Porto. In 2018 HIP Portugal team implemented a pilot study of a version of HIP curriculum for adolescents – HIP Teens. In 2020, the program ‘First Psychological Aid for Heroes’ was created in partnership with the Portuguese Red Cross, combining and adaptation of HIP curriculum for kids, along with their training of psychological first aid. The first HIP Club was created in 2023, following the implementation of the HIP Teens program in the social center Centro Social da Paróquia de Nossa Senhora da Ajuda. Its aim is to give young people a voice, enabling them to actively contribute to transforming their reality. The HIP Club serves as a space where youngsters identify issues they would like to change in their surroundings (in the community center, school, neighborhood, etc.), and actively contribute to solving them.
Social Intensity Syndrome (SIS) In 2008, Zimbardo began working with Sarah Brunskill and Anthony Ferreras on a new theory termed Social Intensity Syndrome (SIS). SIS is a new term invented to describe and normalize the effects military culture has on the socialization of both active soldiers and veterans. Zimbardo and Brunskill presented the new theory and a preliminary
factor analysis of it accompanying survey at the
Western Psychological Association in 2013. Brunskill finished the data collection in December 2013. Through an exploratory component factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, and validity tests demonstrated that SIS was a reliable and valid construct of measuring military socialization. == Recognition ==