Stanford Prison Experiment: Why the lead psychologist defended his infamous study to the end

The fallout from the 1971 study led to tighter ethical standards for human studies.
‘Prisoners’ meet ‘Superintendent’ Philip Zimbardo during the Stanford prison experiment. Photo: PrisonExp.org.

A world-first shyness clinic, an analysis of sexist Reader’s Digest jokes and perhaps the most infamous study ever all emerged from one man’s mind: Emeritus Professor Philip Zimbardo.

The psychologist died last month at his home in San Francisco, California, aged 91.