Philip G. Zimbardo

PHILIP G. ZIMBARDO An Oral History conducted by Daniel Hartwig STANFORD HISTORICAL SOCIETY ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM Stanford University ©2017 2 Ferne Millen Photography Philip G. Zimbardo, 2015 3 4 Contents Publisher’s Note p. 9 Introduction p. 11 Abstract p. 13 Biography p. 15 Part One—May 9, 2016 p. 19 Ancestors, childhood, and family life in New York Temporary move to California High school classmate Stanley Milgram Milgram’s obedience experiments and career Stanford Prison Experiment Undergraduate education Social activism Part Two—September 1, 2016 p. 67 Graduate study at Yale Teaching at New York University Research on deindividuation Social activism Harlem Summer Project Vietnam War Malcolm X International European Social Psychology Summer Program Part Three—September 1, 2016 p. 97 Columbia University Joining Stanford faculty 5 Stanford Psychology Department Resident faculty at Cedro Teaching methods Psychology & Life Faculty and colleagues 1960s, activism, Vietnam War Social Psychology in Action Birth of the Stanford Prison Experiment Stanford Shyness Project Part Four—December 9, 2016 p. 145 End of the Stanford Prison Experiment Stanford Shyness Clinic Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory Mind control Madness Part Five—December 9, 2016 p. 163 Discontinuity and paranoia Discovering Psychology Teaching psychology at Stanford American Psychological Association 9/11, terrorism Abu Ghraib Retirement The Lucifer Effect Heroic Imagination Project Part Six—March 12, 2017 p. 207 Man Interrupted, A Boy Disconnected Heroic Imagination Project Discovering Psychology 6 Recruitment of minorities and women Mentoring graduate students Applied psychology Program in Human Biology Part Seven—March 12, 2017 p. 245 Music Department, Stanley Getz Activism Psi Chi, the Psychology Honor Society Reflections and accomplishments Curriculum Vitae p. 261 Topics p. 273 Interviewer Biography p. 277 7 8 Publisher’s Note Philip G. Zimbardo’s oral history interview includes his recollections of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971. The experiment is still influential today and continues to generate lively debate within the psychology community. Recent bloggers have raised questions about the validity of the experiment. Zimbardo and his colleagues address these questions in a new section of his website entitled Responses to Critics. 9 10 Introduction This oral history was conducted by the Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program in collaboration with the Stanford University Archives. The program is under the direction of the Oral History Committee of the Stanford Historical Society. The Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program furthers the Society’s mission “to foster and support the documentation, study, publication, dissemination, and preservation of the history of the Leland Stanford Junior University.” The program explores the institutional history of the University, with an emphasis on the transformative post-WWII period, through interviews with leading faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and others. The interview recordings and transcripts provide valuable additions to the existing collection of written and photographic materials in the Stanford University Archives. Oral history is not a final, verified, or complete narrative of events. It is a unique, reflective, spoken account, offered by the interviewee in response to questioning, and as such it may be deeply personal. Each oral history is a reflection of the past as the interviewee remembers and recounts it. But memory and meaning vary from person to person; others may recall events differently. Used as primary source material, any one oral history will be compared with and evaluated in light of other evidence, such as contemporary texts and other oral histories, in arriving at an interpretation of the past. Although the interviewees have a past or current connection with Stanford University, they are not speaking as representatives of the University. Each transcript is edited by program staff and by the interviewee for grammar, syntax, and occasional inaccuracies and to aid in overall clarity and readability--but is not fact-checked as such. The approach is to maintain the substantive content of the interview as well as the interviewee’s voice. As a result of this editing process, the transcript may not match the recording verbatim. If a substantive deletion has been made, this is generally indicated at the relevant place on the transcript. Substantive additions are noted in brackets or by footnote. 11 All uses of the interview transcripts and recordings are covered by a legal agreement between the interviewee and the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University (“Stanford”). The copyright to the transcripts and recordings, including the right to publish, is reserved by Stanford University. The transcripts and recordings are freely made available for non-commercial purposes, with proper citation provided in print or electronic publication. No part of the transcripts or recordings may be used for commercial purposes without the written permission of the Stanford University Archivist or his/her representative. Requests for commercial use should be addressed to [email protected] and should indicate the items to be used, extent of usage, and purpose. This oral history should be cited as: Zimbardo, Philip G. (2017) Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932). Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. 12 Abstract In this oral history, emeritus professor of psychology Philip G. Zimbardo talks about his childhood, graduate education at Yale, joining the Stanford faculty, his research and its evolution over time, involvement in political activism, and contributions to the field of psychology and to Stanford University. Zimbardo recalls his childhood in the Bronx interrupted by a brief relocation to North Hollywood, Calif., his hospital stay at a young age, and his experiences of discrimination. He talks about his friendship at high school with Stanley Milgram, who was later known for his controversial study on obedience to authority. He also describes his part-time job while a Brooklyn College undergraduate student at a Broadway theater and his love for musicals and jazz. Zimbardo reflects on his graduate study at Yale, his early career, and joining the Stanford faculty. He discusses at length the Stanford Prison Experiment, the lessons learned, and his testimony on behalf of an American prison guard accused of abusing detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. He describes the outgrowth of the prison experiment in terms of his new research in applied psychology, the Stanford Shyness Project, as well as a shift in his research focus from explicating “evil” behavior engendered by situations to fostering good through his current work with the Heroic Imagination Project. Zimbardo talks about the growth of the Psychology Department at Stanford and shares memories of the prominent psychologists he has worked with in his career. He discusses his work as the president of the American Psychological Association and his outreach to clinical psychologists to promote collaboration and research programs. Zimbardo talks about his involvement in political activism, including his position as secretary of the Brooklyn Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People while he was at Brooklyn College, his encounter with Malcolm X, and co-authoring an article in Psychology Today on President Donald Trump’s mental health. 13 Zimbardo concludes the interview with thoughts on his Stanford career, his legacy, including his role in revitalizing the Music Department by inviting Stanley Getz to be resident musician. 14 Philip George Zimbardo Biography Philip George Zimbardo, known for the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted in 1971, was born on March 23, 1933 in New York City. He attended Brooklyn College where he earned a BA in 1954, triple majoring in psychology, sociology and anthropology. He then went on to earn his MA in 1955 and his PhD in 1959 from Yale University, both in psychology. Growing up in a nuclear Sicilian-American family during the Great Depression, Zimbardo dealt with poverty and frequent major illnesses. School provided him a “sense of future orientation” drastically different than the limitations of his day-to-day ghetto life. In high school, he acquired leadership skills and met a life-long friend and colleague, Stanley Milgram. While attending Brooklyn College, Zimbardo worked part-time for four years at the Saint James Broadway theatre selling refreshments, programs, and checking coats--along with several other college kids. He acquired lessons in deception from the concession manager that later on got translated into skills that he perfected in deception experiments as a social psychologist. In 1953, his junior year, he published his first journal article on racial dynamics between Blacks and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx. In graduate school, Zimbardo first worked with K. C. Montgomery on exploratory behavior in rats, was then mentored by Neal Miller, Frank Beach, and Carl Hovland before being captivated by the work of Leon Festinger, whose research on cognitive dissonance would form the basis of Zimbardo’s dissertation and next decade of research. In 1960, Zimbardo took a position at New York University, where he would stay until 1967. Despite an extraordinarily heavy teaching load of five to six courses per term and every

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