What The Stanford Prison Experiment Tells Us About Cults

It's perhaps the most famous psychological study ever but what does it really tell us? And what might it tell us about cults? In the 1970s Professor Philip Zimbardo created a simulated prison in the basement of a college building, separating volunteer students into the roles of prisoners and guards to observe their behaviour. What happened next is disturbing, and led to a view that when it comes to behaviour, more important than the individual's ethics and morality, it's the situation that really matters. In addition to the obvious ethical issues raised by the study there have fairly recently been challenges to its claims and the scientific methodology. Stephen and Celine go deep into what it really tells us and it's not what was claimed. Zimbardo article about cults https://www.lucifereffect.com/guide_cults.htm Recording of instructions to "prison guards" https://purl.stanford.edu/wn708sg0050 Video recordings  https://exhibits.stanford.edu/spe/browse/video-recordings British Psychological Society article https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/time-change-story Share this podcast with a friend https://pod.link/1540824671 To reach out to us: https://www.culthackers.com/ To become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/culthackers/posts Witness Underground Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/witnessunderground/431102735?ref=akkj92&token=3e50ed5a  

Om Podcasten

A podcast about cult hacking! Cracking the code to understand what cults are, how they work, how people leave and how to make sense of the world after leaving. Father and daughter team, media graduate Celine and former cult member, now organizational psychologist Stephen, explore how cults work, why they are so dangerous and the experience of leaving and making sense of the world. They speak to cult hackers from all over the world, from ex members to academics, from writers to filmmakers, and from therapists to activists. Copyright Stephen Mather 2022