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Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: A Case Study in Organized Skepticism

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Abstract

Growing evidence exists that the findings of individual studies—including classic experiments—often fail to replicate. Such published results, however, are considered by scholars, and taught to students, as established scientific truth. In this context, citations to Zimbardo and colleagues’ classic Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) in criminology/criminal justice journals (1975–2014) were content analyzed to assess whether the study’s conclusions have been embraced or treated with skepticism. The data revealed that scholars were widely accepting of the SPE and, even when voicing concerns, supportive of its message. These results suggest the need to give replications higher priority and for scholars to adhere more closely to the scientific norm of organized skepticism. In the classroom, the continued, uncritical acceptance of the SPE—now more than 40 years old—can serve as an opportunity to teach students about the production and assessment of knowledge within criminology.

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... The forgoing issue has received very little critical attention in forensic psychology and criminology until recently in the case of the 1971 Stanford prison experiment (SPE; Griggs, 2014;Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2017; J. M. Bartels, 2015). The SPE was a simulated experiment of prison life which reported dramatic pathological behaviors from college student participants as a result of being housed in harsh physical living conditions and having to endure humiliating personal interactions with noninmate/guards (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973;Zimbardo, 1972). ...
... The SPE was a simulated experiment of prison life which reported dramatic pathological behaviors from college student participants as a result of being housed in harsh physical living conditions and having to endure humiliating personal interactions with noninmate/guards (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973;Zimbardo, 1972). Kulig et al. (2017) surveyed the peer-reviewed literature on the SPE and found a very high acceptance rate by scholars (80%) despite the study never being directly replicated. Just recently, however, the SPE has also been the subject of an alarming number of criticisms on scientific and ethical criteria (Blum, 2018;Haslam, Reicher, & Van Bavel, 2019; J. Bartels, 2019;Le Texier, 2019;McLeod, 2018). ...
... This content analysis of articles citing Grassian (1983) revealed that discussions of the WPSCS in the peer-reviewed literature were largely uncritical of its research methodology (81%). This finding is nearly identical to that reported by Kulig et al. (2017) for the SPE (80%). The credibility of the SHU syndrome has also grown exponentially during the 5-year span between 2012 and 2017 (see Figure 1), which is disturbing given that a number of fundamental shortcomings in the study's research design were identified prior to that period. ...
Article
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In the last decade, scholars have expressed growing concerns about the credibility of some studies in the biomedical and social sciences domains that are broadly regarded as classics, that is, studies that are widely cited as the definitive answer on a topic and are in the public interest. In the current investigation, we directed our attention toward one such classic—the Walpole Prison Solitary Confinement Study (WPSCS)—which reported that inmates placed in prison solitary confinement suffered traumatic psychological damage (Grassian, 1983). Our survey of the peer-reviewed literature referencing the WPSCS from 1983 to 2017 confirmed that a very large proportion (i.e., 81%) of articles cited the study without any discussion of its fatal methodological limitations (e.g., response bias confounds, no comparison group). The number of uncritical articles, moreover, has increased over time despite the fact that thirty years ago the first criticisms of the study appeared and have continued to do so. We offer several reasons from the cognitive psychological literature as to why the WPSCS has been viewed favorably. Lastly, we discuss how the WPSCS may have diverted attention away from managing prisons in a humane fashion and provide recommendations for reducing reporting biases in the academic literature.
... There have been several persuasive individual studies that have been labeled as "classic" or even "famous" despite a lack of methodological rigor and limited replication of findings. As Kulig, Pratt, and Cullen (2016) describe it, these studies, including the Stanford Prison Experiment, are often held in such high regard that few scholars question or critique the methodology or findings, despite the clear limitations that may be observed. So, in spite of the Stanford Prison Experiment suffering from both methodological and ethical challenges, this study has been branded a classic, but there may be an underlying reason for why it is held in such high regard. ...
... So, in spite of the Stanford Prison Experiment suffering from both methodological and ethical challenges, this study has been branded a classic, but there may be an underlying reason for why it is held in such high regard. Kulig et al. (2016) clearly recognized that the Stanford Prison Experiment was "groundbreaking" because it called attention to the inhumanity of prisons and their impact on incarcerated individuals. The overall findings were timely and responded to shared concerns that imprisonment may be very detrimental. ...
... Essentially, this study propelled the discussion forward regarding imprisonment and the conditions in which individuals are incarcerated. Unfortunately, although attempts have been made to replicate the Stanford Prison Experiment, similar findings have not followed (Reicher & Haslam, 2006;Kulig et al., 2016). ...
... Most modern psychological and criminological theories, however, are based on the assumption of determinism (Cullen, 2017;Skinner, 1971). These theories assume that all behaviour is ultimately caused by factors outside the individual's personal control. ...
... In a recent issue of The Criminologist, the American Society of Criminology's Vice President noted, "science is under attack more than ever, and we need to get our side of the street clean so that our evidence-based recommendations are generated from soundly scrutinized scholarship that was rigorously reviewed and replicated" (Dugan, 2020, p. 1). Other prominent voices in the field have made similar appeals (e.g., Burt, 2020;Kulig et al., 2017;Sweeten, 2020). With this in mind, we conducted a direct replication of Pickett and Baker (2014) following OSPs. ...
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In 2014, Pickett and Baker cast doubt on the scholarly consensus that Americans are pragmatic about criminal justice. Previous research suggested this pragmaticism was evidenced by either null or positive relationships between seemingly opposite items (i.e., between dispositional and situational crime attributions and between punitiveness and rehabilitative policy support). Pickett and Baker argued that because these studies worded survey items in the same positive direction, respondents’ susceptibility to acquiescence bias led to artificially inflated positive correlations. Using a simple split-ballot experiment, they manipulated the direction of survey items and demonstrated bidirectional survey items resulted in negative relationships between attributions and between support for punitive and rehabilitative policies. We replicated Pickett and Baker’s methodology with a nationally representative sample of American respondents supplemented by a diverse student sample. Our results were generally consistent, and, in many cases, effect sizes were stronger than those observed in the original study. Americans appear much less pragmatic when survey items are bidirectional. Yet, we suggest the use of bidirectional over unidirectional survey items trades one set of problems for another. Instead, to reduce acquiescence bias and improve overall data quality, we encourage researchers to adopt item-specific questioning.
... In a recent issue of The Criminologist, the American Society of Criminology's Vice President noted, "science is under attack more than ever, and we need to get our side of the street clean so that our evidence-based recommendations are generated from soundly scrutinized scholarship that was rigorously reviewed and replicated" (Dugan, 2020, p. 1). Other prominent voices in the field have made similar appeals (e.g., Burt, 2020;Kulig et al., 2017;Sweeten, 2020). With this in mind, we conducted a direct replication of Pickett and Baker (2014) following OSPs. ...
Preprint
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In 2014, Pickett and Baker cast doubt on the scholarly consensus that Americans are pragmatic about criminal justice. Previous research suggested this pragmatism was evidenced by either null or positive relationships between seemingly opposite items (i.e., between dispositional and situational crime attributions and between punitiveness and rehabilitative policy support). Pickett and Baker (2014) argued that because these studies worded survey items in the same positive direction, respondents’ susceptibility to acquiescence bias led to artificially inflated positive correlations. Using a simple split-ballot experiment, they manipulated the direction of survey items and demonstrated bidirectional survey items resulted in negative relationships between attributions and between support for punitive and rehabilitative policies. We replicated Pickett and Baker’s (2014) methodology with a nationally representative sample of American respondents supplemented by a diverse student sample. Our results were generally consistent, and, in many cases, effect sizes were stronger than those observed in the original study. Americans appear much less pragmatic when survey items are bidirectional. Yet, we suggest the use of bidirectional over unidirectional survey items trades one set of problems for another. Instead, to reduce acquiescence bias and improve overall data quality, we encourage researchers to adopt item-specific questioning.
... For nearly 50 years, this study has enjoyed wide acclaim, with virtually no criticism by criminologists (Kulig et al., 2017). The experiment was so popular a movie was created, The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015), that aired in theaters and on Netflix, a leading global video streaming service. ...
Thesis
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This dissertation presents primary data from a 2022 national survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by YouGov. The survey instrument measured public perceptions toward 16 outcomes, including the respondents’ views of corrections officers (“hacks” or “heroes”); ratings of occupational status; preferred role for officers (custody or treatment); perceived value (salary, importance of, confidence in); and acceptance of officers’ use of force and support for reducing misconduct in the occupation. This dissertation also attempts to explain the variation in perceptions toward correctional officers. Based on prior research, five theoretical models are examined: the racial model, correctional attitudes model, political model, crime/danger model, and prison contact model.
... Apart from this ethical criticism, Zimbardo has ignored or attempted to refute his detractors (e.g., Haney & Zimbardo, 2009;Resnick, 2018;Zimbardo, 2006). It appears that his attempts have succeeded, because a recent series of content analyses of psychology textbooks and criminology/criminal justice journals revealed little coverage of these criticisms (Bartels, 2015;Griggs, 2014;Griggs & Whitehead, 2014;Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2017). Textbook authors who doubted the veracity of the SPE seem to have simply chosen to not include it in their textbooks, as did Peter Gray (2013), leaving other authors the possibility to continue to publicize it. ...
Article
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The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) is one of psychology's most famous studies. It has been criticized on many grounds, and yet a majority of textbook authors have ignored these criticisms in their discussions of the SPE, thereby misleading both students and the general public about the study's questionable scientific validity. Data collected from a thorough investigation of the SPE archives and interviews with 15 of the participants in the experiment further question the study's scientific merit. These data are not only supportive of previous criticisms of the SPE, such as the presence of demand characteristics, but provide new criticisms of the SPE based on heretofore unknown information. These new criticisms include the biased and incomplete collection of data, the extent to which the SPE drew on a prison experiment devised and conducted by students in one of Zimbardo's classes 3 months earlier, the fact that the guards received precise instructions regarding the treatment of the prisoners, the fact that the guards were not told they were subjects, and the fact that participants were almost never completely immersed by the situation. Possible explanations of the inaccurate textbook portrayal and general misperception of the SPE's scientific validity over the past 5 decades, in spite of its flaws and shortcomings, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
... Although there may be issues with the nature of the experimental conditions (e.g., the research being conducted in the context of a public broadcast), Reicher and Haslam asserted that the expectations (and experimenters' stated instructions) regarding roles may have confounded the results of the original experiment and overstated the value of the simulated prison situation. Other researchers have also questioned the validity and findings of the SPE (for a summary, see Bartels, 2015;Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2017). Similar doubts have been discussed with respect to Milgram's classic studies on obedience (e.g., Haslam & Reicher, 2012;Perry, 2018;Romm, 2015). ...
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For over a decade, the failure to reproduce findings in several disciplines, including the biomedical, behavioral, and social sciences, have led some authors to claim that there is a so-called “replication (or reproducibility) crisis” in those disciplines. The current article examines: (a) various aspects of the reproducibility of scientific studies, including definitions of reproducibility; (b) published concerns about reproducibility in the scientific literature and public press; (c) variables involved in assessing the success of attempts to reproduce a study; (d) suggested factors responsible for reproducibility failures; (e) types of validity of experimental studies and threats to validity as they relate to reproducibility; and (f) evidence for threats to reproducibility in the behavior science/analysis literature. Suggestions for improving the reproducibility of studies in behavior science and analysis are described throughout.
... Funders work on funding cycles. Science can work over a century: The profession's rethinking of Margaret Mead's work (Shankman, 2009) and of the Stanford prison experiment (Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2016) harken back to data collected decades ago. The Stanford prison experiment is now widely questioned, but the people who conducted the research ultimately built successful careers by common metrics: citations, and prestige of an employer. ...
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This article considers calls for data transparency as research regulation and accountability. Rather than arguing for or against the value of sharing data, the article argues that understanding the call for data sharing requires questioning assumptions embedded in the debate about the context of scholarship and rethinking the purposes of data access. The article first argues that the spread of information available digitally means that researchers in the academy and outside it work with digital information, quite apart from mandates for data access. Second, replication as an accountability measure is often offered as one reason for making data available. However, scholars of replication have argued that replication has multiple components, many difficult to enact. Demands in universities for grant funding, impact by standard metrics, and newsworthy research encourage rapidly produced scholarship and research that makes big innovative claims. However, replication imposed sporadically cannot regularly counter these systematic incentives. If one purpose of data access is to regulate the research enterprise, scholarship on regulatory strategies and the difficulty of accomplishing goals via mandates illuminates the call for data access. Replication operates as a threat, one seen to generate incentives for good science, but is erratically enforced. Borrowing from the scholarship of audit and regulation, the article uses regulation, including audit, as accountability to argue that the sciences might need to address fundamental concerns about trust.
... But he also understood that single studies-even when interventions are tested across multiple sites-have limits. In contemporary science, including social science, there is growing recognition that single studies are not consistently replicated, in part due to statistical error and in part due to unique contextual effects (Kulig, Pratt, and Cullen, 2017). The only way to be evidence based is thus to pull together all existing evaluations. ...
... The SPE has been widely criticized (e.g., Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2016) but remains a landmark experiment with a powerful point to make about the dynamics of relationships within a prison setting. In his more recent reflections on the experiment, Zimbardo (2008Zimbardo ( , 2016 has proposed that it should be understood as a failure of leadership and an underestimation of the power of the situation and the system to produce behaviors that, as human beings, we do not like to think we are capable of. ...
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Prisons are the quintessential government institution, with almost complete control over the lives of the people compelled to spend time in them. Depending on how they are run and what services they provide, they have the potential to change people’s paths in life for the better or the worse, or indeed to leave people untouched. Furthermore, an enormous number of people spend time in prisons, particularly in the United States, so that the impact of imprisonment has serious consequences for society. In this article, we reflect on some of the major influences that psychology has had on prisons and imprisonment. We consider the importance of the scientist-practitioner model and the extent to which psychological evidence has permeated prison policy. We illustrate with four examples of how psychologists have contributed to understanding and influencing prisons: the Stanford Prison Experiment, the scientist-practitioner work of Hans Toch, the concepts of legitimacy and procedural justice, and the risk, needs, and responsivity principles of correctional rehabilitation. Looking to the future, we imagine how psychologically informed data science could expand its reach, and discuss ways in which prison psychologists could up our game in effectively communicating and embedding the findings of psychological science.
... 277) when evaluating scientific claims. This is not something that criminologists-along with scholars in most academic disciplines-have been very good at historically (Burt & Simons, 2015;Kulig, Pratt, & Cullen, 2017). Thus, it should not be surprising that such skepticism has yet to make its way into the digit ratio literature, where the widespread presence of null results for the 2D:4D ratio has done little to dampen scholars' faith in its predictive validity (see, e.g., Kilmek, Galbarczyk, Nenko, & Jasienska, 2016;Manning, Kildiff, Cook, Crewther, & Fink, 2014;Ribeiro, Neave, Morais, & Manning, 2016). ...
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The search for reliable risk factors is a staple among both scholars and policymakers concerned with structuring interventions designed to reduce aggressive and violent behavior. Within this line of work, strong claims have recently been made regarding the predictive capacity of a potential physical biomarker of criminogenic risk: the 2D:4D digit ratio, a purported indirect indicator of exposure to fetal testosterone. The results of studies assessing the link between the digit ratio and problematic behavior are, however, mixed. Accordingly, in the present study we subject this literature (N=32 studies; 361 effect size estimates) to a meta-analysis using multilevel modeling techniques. Our results reveal that the overall mean effect size of the 2D:4D digit ratio to measures of aggressive and violent behavior is weak but statistically significant (mean r=0.036, p<0.05). Moderator analyses confirm that these weak effects are generally consistent (and often non-significant) across a variety of methodological conditions (e.g., different outcome measures, different kinds of samples). We conclude with a call for caution against placing emphasis on the 2D:4D digit ratio as a reliable risk factor for aggressive and violent behavior.
Chapter
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Publication bias remains a controversial issue in psychological science. The tendency of psychological science to avoid publishing null results produces a situation that limits the replicability assumption of science, as replication cannot be meaningful without the potential acknowledgment of failed replications. We argue that the field often constructs arguments to block the publication and interpretation of null results and that null results may be further extinguished through questionable researcher practices. Given that science is dependent on the process of falsification, we argue that these problems reduce psychological science's capability to have a proper mechanism for theory falsification, thus resulting in the promulgation of numerous "undead" theories that are ideologically popular but have little basis in fact. © The Author(s) 2012.
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Background This paper describes the work undertaken over many years by the author and colleagues concerning the role of opportunity in crime. The work began in the early 1970s in the Home Office Research Unit, the British government’s criminological research department. Discussions The work supported a preventive approach – situational crime prevention – that was highly contentious in the criminology of the day because it sought to reduce opportunities for crime, rather than to modify offender propensities. Critics claimed that situational crime prevention would displace rather than reduce crime because they assumed that opportunity merely determines the time and place of crime, but does not cause it. Summary This paper describes the difficulties in establishing that opportunity is cause of crime and why this took so long. It reviews the research that was undertaken to this end, and it summarizes the benefits for criminology and crime policy of accepting that opportunity does cause crime.
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For decades, scholars and policymakers have thought that changing the demographics of the prison officer workforce—in particular, including more female officers—might facilitate progressive prison reform. This article explores the assumption that female officers are more empathetic and pro-rehabilitation and less punitive than their male counterparts by analyzing the relationship between gender and prison officer attitudes toward inmates and the purpose of imprisonment. Drawing on data from more than 900 prison officers in Minnesota, our findings suggest that although female and male officers may import different attitudes toward punishment and rehabilitation, organizational and cultural factors affect the officers' perspectives more than dispositional characteristics. Because prison officers are chiefly responsible for implementing policy on the ground, prison reform efforts require isolating factors that shape these workers' orientations.