「斯坦福监狱实验」设计得好吗？意义在哪？

First, regarding some of my personal views on the Stanford Prison Experiment.

首先谈一谈我对斯坦福监狱实验的一些个人看法.

Q 1. What changes in the design of that study do you wish you had made?

问题1：在实验设计方面，有哪些改动是您现在希望做而当时没做的？

There are several changes that would have made this study more scientifically valid.

我认为有这样几个改动可以让当年的实验变得更加科学可靠。

A) They should have been a Control condition to compare participants’ attitudes and values to those in the Experimental condition; that means among the many college students who applied to be in the experiment, all would have been given the same personality measures and other background and attitude measures initially. Then half of them would have been randomly assigned to a wait list that did not participate directly in the prison study itself. After the experiment was completed, we would then compare their attitudes, values, and personalities --Pre-Post-- with those participants who played the roles of prisoners and guards. Doing so would allow direct comparisons of the impact of the experience of being in the prison setting of those students who participated with those who did not, but were equivalent to them prior to that assignment.

1. 首先应该设置一个对照组，和实验组之间进行态度和价值观念的比较。这就是说，在实验开始前，对所有报名的学生先进行统一的性格量表测试，以及其他的个人背景和态度测试。之后，半数的报名者会被随机分配到对照组，不直接参与监狱实验。在实验完成后，我们会将对照组被试的态度、价值观念和性格进行实验前后的比较，并将其和实验组进行比较。这样我们就可以通过比较在实验开始之前各项参数相当的实验组和对照组的被试，直接得出监狱条件对人的影响。

B) I should not have played the dual role of superintendent of the prison as well as being the principal investigator of the research. Over time, I became more and more of the superintendent and less and less of the researcher, in part because I had to deal with many emerging issues, such as prisoners having emotional breakdowns, meeting with parents who were distressed about the negative appearance of the sons who were prisoners, working with the parole board, handling various visitors, such as a prison chaplain, and supervising the three students working with me to be sure that each one was playing his role appropriately. My failure to focus on the role of researcher meant that when there was a rumor of prisoners’ escape attempt, instead of studying the psychology of the spread of that rumor, I assumed it was a real threat to the integrity of my prison, I wasted a lot of time trying to move all of my prisoners into local city jail -- where each of them had been put temporarily after they were arrested at the start of my study.

2. 我认为自己不应该同时扮演监狱主管和实验首席研究者两个角色。随着时间的推移，我逐渐变得更像一个监狱主管，而脱离了自己研究者的身份。其中的部分原因是，当时的我需要解决不断出现的新问题，比如说应对「犯人」的情绪失控，跟担忧焦虑的家长沟通，跟假释裁决委员会打交道，接待包括监狱牧师在内的来访者，还要管理我的三个研究生，确保他们扮演好自己的角色。我没能做好研究者带来的后果是，当监狱里出现了犯人越狱的传闻时，我的第一反应不是去研究传闻散播的心理学机制，而是把这个传闻当做真实的威胁。我当时花费了大量的时间，试图把犯人转移当地的看守所。

C) I wish I had a larger budget than the mere $2000 which I had available for this entire experiment to pay for the physical setup of the prison, meals for prisoners and guards and staff, payment to prisoners and guards, as well as for the costs of expensive video tapes. In those days, the only videotapes were large one-inch Ampex tapes, that cost about $60 each, plus money to have them developed by a processing company. So instead of being able to videotape everything that happened during the day and night of the prison experiment, which would now be easily possible to do, I had to decide which events would be videotaped given we only had enough tapes for 12 hours total. That means we have no archival records of some of the very interesting things that occurred during the six of the prison experiment during its six long days and nights.

3. 我还希望我的经费能够更多一些。当时我只有$2000美元用以支付场地费用，「犯人」伙食，给「犯人」和「狱警」的报酬，还有购买录像带的费用。在当时，可供选择只有一英寸的Ampex 录像带，每一盒就要$60，还要加上送到店里冲洗的费用。所以当时我们没有条件录制监狱里白天黑夜发生的每一件事情，虽然在现在看来是再简单不过的事情。我需要决那些事情是值得录下来的，因为我们所有的录像带只够录12个小时的内容。这就意味着在实验进行的六天里面，有很多值得研究的瞬间没有被记录下来。

Q. Are there any regrets that I have still about the study?

问题2：对于这个实验您有哪些遗憾?

A) I wish I could have repeated part of the experiment with a new set of guards who had been previously trained to be more humane, having gone through a compassion training exercise. With that prior experience would they be less hostile and evil in their behavior toward prisoners who they were supervising? The results of such a study could be used in the training of real prison guards in real prisons in the United States and other countries.

我希望当时能够使用一批新的狱警，重复部分的实验。这批狱警会提前接受训练，并通过同情训练，学着用更仁慈的手段对待犯人。在这些训练过后，他们是否会对监管的犯人表现得不那么敌对或者充满恶意？这部分实验的结果之后可以应用于美国和其他国家的狱警训练。

B) I wish I could have repeated this experiment with women as prisoners and guards, not only all men. Would women prison guards behave differently than their male counterparts in how they treated and abused their prisoners? Would women prisoners form social networks to support one another as conditions got more difficult, rather than as we saw among men to become more socially isolated?

我还希望用女性的犯人和狱警来重复这次实验。女狱警在对待或者虐待犯人方面，会和男狱警有什么不同吗？跟男犯人变得越来越孤立相比，女犯人在条件变得艰难时，会联结起来、相互扶持吗？

C) I regret not having terminated the experiment after the second prisoner had an emotional breakdown because then there was sufficiently dramatic evidence to demonstrate the power of situational forces to dominate and overwhelm individuals regardless of their personality. I did not do so after the first prisoner broke down after only 36 hours into the study, because my staff and I believed he was being deceptive, he was faking it.

我很后悔自己当时没有在第二个犯人出现情绪崩溃时就立即终止实验，因为在那个时候，已经有足够戏剧性的证据可以展现情境压力支配个体、压制个性的的强大力量。在第一个犯人情绪失控（实验开始36小时）时，我并没有终止实验的原因是，当时我的团队和我自己都认为他是假装的。

D) The final regret that I have is not having anticipated that I needed a larger staff to conduct a study that ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The staff of three students and me was not sufficient to do all of the many tasks required to keep the prison running efficiently as well as to do our scientific recordings and observations, and then to deal with the many unanticipated emerging problems, such as prison is having breakdowns and other prisoners having to replace them.

最后一个遗憾是，我当时没能预见到，进行这样一个一周七天、一天24小时昼夜不停的实验需要大量的人力支持。三个研究生和我四个人组成的团队没有能力应付保持监狱正常运转和观察、记录实验数据的所有任务，更不用说那些出乎意料的突发状况，比如说应对犯人情绪失控，替换犯人这样的任务。

Obviously there were times when one of us had to be asleep-- and I slept on the couch in my office, which was upstairs in the psychology department. To make matters worse, in the middle of the study one of the graduate students have to leave the deal with a family emergency, meaning there were only three of us to conduct the experiment and to staff our prison. Clearly we needed a much bigger staff to do the job as well as it should have been conducted.

当然，过一段时间我们中间就有一个人需要休息，我当时睡在楼上心理学院办公室的沙发上。在人手紧缺的情况下，我有一个学生家里有急事，需要中途离开，意味着我们只剩下三个人来运转实验，监管整个监狱。很明显我们需要一个更大的团队。

Q 3. What was the most powerful event that you experienced during that experiment that profound impact on you?

问题3：在实验期间发生的对您影响最大、最深远的事情是什么？

Let me add one very personal experience that led me to terminate my experiment after only six days, when we had projected it to last for two weeks. On the fifth night of the study I invited my girlfriend, Christina Maslach, to come down to the basement to observe the remarkable group dynamics that were unfolding, and then we would have a late dinner together.

请允许我讲一件非常个人的事情，这件事情直接导致我在仅仅六天后就终止了预定时间为两周的实验。在第五天的晚上，我邀请了我的女友，Christina Maslach，到地下室来参观实验展现出来的非凡的群体动态，之后我们可以一起共进晚餐。

She had been my PhD. student at Stanford University and now was a beginning professor at the University of California at Berkeley, and we had just decided to live together with the possibility of marriage in the future.

她之前是我在斯坦福的博士研究生，当时是加州伯克利大学的一位新晋教授。我们刚搬到一起住不久，打算将来结婚。

However, when she observed the guards humiliating, and traumatizing the prisoners in every conceivable way, she said she could not look at that horrific scene and ran out of the basement dungeon onto the courtyard in front of the psychology department. I did not understand her reaction, and taunted her about not realizing the remarkable experiences that were unfolding here.

然而，当她目睹了狱警们极尽可能地羞辱和伤害犯人的种种后，她说自己没办法再看下去了，跑出地下室、一直跑到心理学院前面的空地上才停下来。我当时完全没办法理解她的激烈反应，还一度嘲笑她居然没有意识到实验中展现出来的现象是多么的惊人。

At that point she lashed out at me; saying that these were not prisoners or guards they were boys and they were suffering, and that I was responsible for what was happening to them. Furthermore, she said that I had been changed by the situation that I created; I had become the Superintendent of the Stanford prison, not just the senior researcher.

在这个时候，她痛斥我说，这些人并不是什么犯人和狱警，他们只是一群男孩，而现在正在遭受非人的待遇。而我对在他们身上发生的一切负有不可推卸的责任。她还说，我被我自己创造出来的环境改变了，我变成了名副其实的典狱长，不再是一个实验者。

Then she said, “I don't understand who you have become, because I know you as someone who loves students, and how can you look at these students suffering and show no compassion?”

她说，「你现在这个样子我完全没办法理解，因为我所了解的你是一个爱护学生的人，而现在你看着学生受苦受罪而完全无动于衷！」

Finally, she asserted that: “if this is the real You then I'm not sure I want to continue our romantic relationship!”

她最后说了一句话，「如果现在这个你就是你真实的样子，那么我不想再跟你继续我们的关系了。」

I suddenly came to my senses, as if awakening from a nightmare, to realize how right she was and how wrong I was allowing such evil to flourish in MY PRISON!

我突然醒悟过来，就像从噩梦中惊醒一样，一瞬间完完全全意识到她是对的，而我错得不能再错。我居然允许那么多邪恶的事情在我的监狱里面遍地开花。

At that moment, late at night, I decided that I had to terminate this experiment the next day, which I did.

在那天晚上，我决定在第二天终止实验。后来我也是这么做的。

(My team of graduate students and I conducted extensive debriefing of all the participants for several hours with only the prisoners, next several hours with the guards, and then combined intensive interaction of all of them. In addition, they all returned two weeks later to view the video tapes and photographic slides we had taken of them playing the roles of prison and guards in the SPE. We also followed up extensively with all of them to be sure that there was no lasting negative effect of this intensive unique experience.)

（实验终止后，我的研究生和我一起分别对犯人和狱警进行了长达数小时的事后情况说明，然后对犯人和狱警全体进行了高强度的心理干预。另外，在实验结束两周后，他们全部返回，观看了实验的影像资料。这些资料记录了他们在斯坦福监狱实验中扮演犯人或扮演狱警进行的一系列活动。之后，我们对当时的参与者进行了大量的回访和调查，确保他们在此次事件过后没有长期的消极影响。）

Finally, what can I do with this woman when challenged by supreme authority in such a direct confrontation? I married her the next summer in the Stanford University Chapel on August 10, 1972. We have lived happily ever after for 45 years, sharing two wonderful daughters.

最后，对于这位对最高权威进行正面对抗的女士，我又该怎么做呢？在第二年的夏天，八月十日，我们在斯坦福的礼堂举行了婚礼。在随后的四十五年中，我们有一段美满的婚姻，和两个出色的女儿。

Our dramatic confrontation, along with many vivid scenes of the SPE, can be seen in an excellent TV movie documentary (2006), The Human Behavior Experiments, by Academy Award winning director, Alex Gibney. That film also includes the dramatic research by Stanley Milgram on obedience to authority.

而我们当初戏剧性的对峙，以及斯坦福监狱实验的种种影像资料，都被记录在2006年的电视纪录片《人类行为实验》中了。奥斯卡金像奖导演，Alex Gibney，执导此部纪录片。影片还包含了 Stanley Milgram 的「服从权威」实验。

( A curious coincidence was that teenaged Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram, who later did the famous blind obedience to authority studies in the 1960s, were high school classmates at James Monroe High School in the Bronx, graduating together in 1950.)

（十分有意思的是，在二十世纪六十年代分别进行了著名的盲从权威实验的 Philip Zimbardo 和 Stanley Milgram，在青年时代是James Monroe高中 的同学，并同时毕业于1950年。）

I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards @安时 ，who translated the article for me.

This is the link to my Zhihu Live, in which I will talk more about my past experience.

这是我即将在 7 月 6 日举行的知乎Live。到那时我会与大家分享更多有趣的经历。

Also, I will publish a Zhihu e-book about my studies in psychology. I hope you will find it an interesting book.

同时，我也会在知乎上出版一本关于心理学的电子书。希望大家会喜欢。