Remembering Professor Philip Zimbardo

On Monday 14 October, 2024, Professor Philip Zimbardo, Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Stanford University, passed away at his home in San Francisco aged 91. Most often remembered as the progenitor of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE), he was a giant in the pantheon of social psychology, with a career that spanned much more than this landmark study. 

Phil is survived by his son and two daughters, and by his wife Professor Christina Maslach (pictured above, with me and Philip), who on occasion he referred to as the heroine of the SPE, having convinced him to bring the study to its premature end on its sixth day. At Stanford (1968-2003), his main teaching responsibility was to deliver introductory psychology classes, which were accompanied by his textbook Psychology & Life. In 2012 that textbook was published in its 19th edition. He also made significant contributions to the psychology of shyness, to the psychology of time perspective and latterly writing about the effects of the internet on young men.

His energy seemed boundless. In his last year at Stanford, 2002-03 he became President of the American Psychological Association. As an Emeritus professor, however, he remained as active as ever, moving away from studying the conditions that promote antisocial behaviour as focused upon in the SPE. During 'retirement' (a term that never really seemed to apply to Phil), he established the multi-centre Heroic Imagination Project, an endeavour which to this day seeks to promote conditions which enable us to manifest the best in ourselves. This is predicated on Phil's contention that ordinary people are capable of unusually courageous acts when enabled by extraordinary conditions. 

My affiliation with Phil began in 1992 when his textbook publisher sent a letter around to UK heads of psychology departments, asking if there was anyone interested in helping him adapt Psychology & Life for a European audience. The University of East London (UEL) Dean of Psychology at that time, Professor David Rose, kindly passed me the letter. I was co-ordinating invited speakers for the School of Psychology. So, I wrote back to the publisher and said I'd be happy to have a conversation about the adaptation of the book but firstly could Professor Zimbardo come and give us a talk about the SPE? So it was that Phil came to UEL for the first time later that year on the 17th of June. In a room which really needed to be twice the size to accommodate everyone in there, Phil talked to us about the SPE. Every chair was taken. Every square foot of floor space was occupied. All of the internal window ledges were perched upon. Phil's delivery was a tour de force. As one colleague from Goldsmiths College said afterward: 'I've heard people talk about the SPE, but I've never heard it like that before'. 

Afterwards, I interviewed Phil and the content of that conversation became an article for The Psychologist in 1993, On cruelty, ethics and experimentation. I went on to work with Phil and two Dutch colleagues (Jeroen Jansz and Nico Metaal, Leiden University) on what became Psychology, A European Text. Phil returned in person to UEL to give another talk in 2007 when his book The Lucifer Effect – How Good People Turn Bad was about to be published, and lastly in 2020 during the pandemic, a talk he delivered remotely from his study in San Francisco via Teams. On each occasion Phil's energy and intellectual enthusiasm inspired the audience, engaging new generations of students and staff. 

 Other projects emanated from my contact with Phil. In 1999/2000 I collaborated with him on a 3-part TV series for ITV Education called The Human Zoo in which classic social psychology experiments were brought to life in everyday contexts. Mention should be made here of Phil's own hugely successful Discovering Psychology TV series for PBS. 

Not long afterward, in 2001, I got involved in the BBC Prison Study (BBC-PS) as one of the day-to-day ethics panelists. My involvement and what was achieved therein about additional ethical safeguards was significantly informed by Phil's recommendations from the SPE. His main point was that in the SPE he had conflated the role of the study co-ordinator with that of also being the prison warden, and that in retrospect he should have separated the two roles. So it was in the BBC-PS that an independent panel was set up and was empowered to stop the study should any pre-agreed red lines be crossed, particularly in relation to participant well-being. This was much to the credit of the progenitors of BBC-PS, Professors Haslam and Reicher. In some senses, it was a risk to the study, but it was best practice; the interests of the participants came first. In later years a rapprochement was reached between these three eminent professors of social psychology, it being agreed that the SPE role conformity explanation and the BBC-PS social identity explanation were not antithetical to one another, but were both needed to arrive at a full understanding of what occurred in these important analogue scenarios of prison life.  

Phil's impact on my career was significant and long-lasting. Who would have thought that such multiple projects would have flowed from an initial invitation to him to give a talk over three decades ago? Such was Phil's intellect, drive and charisma that it touched the lives of so many people, whether they were students, colleagues or members of the public. He was a proverbial force of nature.

As he said on the day of his first visit to UEL, he thought he and I were 'simpatico' (Phil was a proud Italian-American, with his roots in Sicily). Indeed, we were aligned. The SPE fascinated me because it illustrated that social and psychological forces 'external' to the person and between people are important as influences upon behaviour, not just 'internal', intrapsychic ones. Understanding behaviour as a product of situations, whether in terms of role conformity or social identity, appealed to me, as an antidote to the idea that we are fully agentic and autonomous individuals somehow immune to contextual influence.

Phil's legacy to psychology doubtless will live on for many generations to come. Personally, I will miss his collegiality, his enthusiasm for thought, for life. I am hugely thankful that our paths crossed and led to all that we shared as colleagues and friends. Ciao, Phil. Rest in peace.

Recommended reading

Haslam, S.A., Reicher, S.D. & McDermott, M.R. (2015). Studying harm-doing without doing harm: The case of the BBC Prison Study, The Stanford Prison Experiment, and the role conformity model of tyranny. In R.J. Sternberg & S.E. Fiske (Eds.), Ethical challenges in the behavioural and brain sciences: Case studies and commentaries. (pp. 134-139). Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.

McDermott, M.R. (1993). On cruelty, ethics and experimentation: Profile of Philip G. Zimbardo. The Psychologist, 6(10), 456-459.

McDermott, M.R. (2019). Evaluating the criticisms of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Psychology Review (Nov), 18-20. 

Zimbardo, P. G. (1977). Shyness: What it is, What to do about it. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. (Reprinted in 1991)

Zimbardo, P.G. (1977; 1990). Shyness: What it is and what to do about it. London: Hachette Books.

Zimbardo, P.G. (2008). The Lucifer effect: How good people turn evil.  London: Ebury Publishing

Zimbardo, P.G. & Boyd, J. (2010). The time paradox: Using the new psychology of time to your advantage. London: Ebury Publishing.  

Zimbardo, P.G. & Coulombe, N. (2016). Man disconnected: How the digital age is changing young men forever. London: Ebury Publishing.

Zimbardo, P.G. & Hartwig, D. (2021). Zimbardo – My Life Revealed, Florence: Giunti Psychometrics