Stanford Prison Experiment?

Question

Why wasn't Zimbardo punished or reprimanded for conducted such an unethical study.

Answer 1

Standards of ethics were different then and it is largely because of experiments like that that they were revised.

Answer 2

In the time of Zimbardo's experiment, stringent ethical guidelines were not in place. We now have what is called an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which consists of 4-5 university staff from different disciplines and one average citizen, who are presented with all research study ideas before they are approved. The community member (non-staff) is in place so as to make sure that whatever experiment being proposed is something that the average community member would be willing to participate in. The new general rule of thumb in regards to psychological research is that the benefits must outweigh any risks to the participants.

Answer 3

Perhaps because then, even more than now, the idea of 'ethics' was seen to be a value judgement, not an objective, quantifiable sum. Keep in mind that at ANY time during the experiment, ANY of the subjects could leave. They were compensated volunteers. Who gets to say whether the experiment was unethical? All we CAN say is that results were quick and rather striking and that the experiment needed to be cancelled due to the reactions of some of the participants. Considering what it taught us (or should have taught us) about the nature of formal imprisonment, I think it was a valuable effort.

Answer 4

Ethical standards in human subjects research was not made official at the time, nor were there university / department HSR boards. I think because his work provided high levels of insight the "costs" were outwieghed by the "benefits." Now days this type of deception / research wouldn't make it off the developmental stage.

Answer 5

in those days i doubt very much there were the ethical guide lines we have in place today. very horrible things happened there but lots of horrible experiments took place in that era