What The Stanford Prison Experiment Tells Us About Cults

2023-10-28

It's perhaps the most famous psychological study ever but what does it really tell us? And what might it tell us about cults? In the 1970s Professor Philip Zimbardo created a simulated prison in the basement of a college building, separating volunteer students into the roles of prisoners and guards to observe their behaviour. What happened next is disturbing, and led to a view that when it comes to behaviour, more important than the individual's ethics and morality, it's the situation that really matters. In addition to the obvious ethical issues raised by the study...

It's perhaps the most famous psychological study ever but what does it really tell us? And what might it tell us about cults?

In the 1970s Professor Philip Zimbardo created a simulated prison in the basement of a college building, separating volunteer students into the roles of prisoners and guards to observe their behaviour. What happened next is disturbing, and led to a view that when it comes to behaviour, more important than the individual's ethics and morality, it's the situation that really matters. In addition to the obvious ethical issues raised by the study there have fairly recently been challenges to its claims and the scientific methodology. Stephen and Celine go deep into what it really tells us and it's not what was claimed.

Zimbardo article about cults

https://www.lucifereffect.com/guide_cults.htm

Recording of instructions to "prison guards"

https://purl.stanford.edu/wn708sg0050

Video recordings

https://exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/browse/video-recordings

British Psychological Society article

https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/time-change-story

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