著名的「斯坦福監獄實驗」是如何讓好人變成惡魔的？

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題圖：《斯坦福監獄實驗》

好人如何變成惡魔

斯坦福監獄實驗是1971年由美國心理學家菲利普·津巴多領導的研究小組，在設在斯坦福大學心理學系大樓地下室的模擬監獄內，進行的一項關於人類對囚禁的反應以及囚禁對監獄中的權威和被監管者行為影響的心理學研究，充當看守和囚犯的都是斯坦福大學的在校大學生志願者。其資助者是美國海軍研究辦公室。

囚犯和看守很快適應了自己的角色，一步步地超過了預設的界限，通向危險和造成心理傷害的情形。三分之一的看守被評價為顯示出「真正的」虐待狂傾向，而許多囚犯在情感上受到創傷，有2人不得不提前退出實驗。最後，津巴多因為這個課題中日益泛濫的反社會行為受到警告，提前終止了整個實驗。這種人的性格的變化被他稱為「路西法效應」：上帝最寵愛的天使路西法後來墮落成了魔鬼撒旦。

「斯坦福監獄實驗」設計得好嗎？意義在哪？

知友：菲利普·津巴多「心理學家，美國心理協會前主席、斯坦福監獄實驗建立者」

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

首先談一談我對斯坦福監獄實驗的一些個人看法.

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

問題1：在實驗設計方面，有哪些改動是您現在希望做而當時沒做的？

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

我認為有這樣幾個改動可以讓當年的實驗變得更加科學可靠。

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. 首先應該設置一個對照組，和實驗組之間進行態度和價值觀念的比較。這就是說，在實驗開始前，對所有報名的學生先進行統一的性格量表測試，以及其他的個人背景和態度測試。之後，半數的報名者會被隨機分配到對照組，不直接參与監獄實驗。在實驗完成後，我們會將對照組被試的態度、價值觀念和性格進行實驗前後的比較，並將其和實驗組進行比較。這樣我們就可以通過比較在實驗開始之前各項參數相當的實驗組和對照組的被試，直接得出監獄條件對人的影響。

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. 我認為自己不應該同時扮演監獄主管和實驗首席研究者兩個角色。隨著時間的推移，我逐漸變得更像一個監獄主管，而脫離了自己研究者的身份。其中的部分原因是，當時的我需要解決不斷出現的新問題，比如說應對「犯人」的情緒失控，跟擔憂焦慮的家長溝通，跟假釋裁決委員會打交道，接待包括監獄牧師在內的來訪者，還要管理我的三個研究生，確保他們扮演好自己的角色。我沒能做好研究者帶來的後果是，當監獄裡出現了犯人越獄的傳聞時，我的第一反應不是去研究傳聞散播的心理學機制，而是把這個傳聞當做真實的威脅。我當時花費了大量的時間，試圖把犯人轉移當地的看守所。

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. 我還希望我的經費能夠更多一些。當時我只有$2000美元用以支付場地費用，「犯人」伙食，給「犯人」和「獄警」的報酬，還有購買錄像帶的費用。在當時，可供選擇只有一英寸的Ampex 錄像帶，每一盒就要$60，還要加上送到店裡沖洗的費用。所以當時我們沒有條件錄製監獄裡白天黑夜發生的每一件事情，雖然在現在看來是再簡單不過的事情。我需要決那些事情是值得錄下來的，因為我們所有的錄像帶只夠錄12個小時的內容。這就意味著在實驗進行的六天裡面，有很多值得研究的瞬間沒有被記錄下來。

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

問題2：對於這個實驗您有哪些遺憾?

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.

我希望當時能夠使用一批新的獄警，重複部分的實驗。這批獄警會提前接受訓練，並通過同情訓練，學著用更仁慈的手段對待犯人。在這些訓練過後，他們是否會對監管的犯人表現得不那麼敵對或者充滿惡意？這部分實驗的結果之後可以應用於美國和其他國家的獄警訓練。

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?

我還希望用女性的犯人和獄警來重複這次實驗。女獄警在對待或者虐待犯人方面，會和男獄警有什麼不同嗎？跟男犯人變得越來越孤立相比，女犯人在條件變得艱難時，會聯結起來、相互扶持嗎？

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.

我很後悔自己當時沒有在第二個犯人出現情緒崩潰時就立即終止實驗，因為在那個時候，已經有足夠戲劇性的證據可以展現情境壓力支配個體、壓制個性的的強大力量。在第一個犯人情緒失控（實驗開始36小時）時，我並沒有終止實驗的原因是，當時我的團隊和我自己都認為他是假裝的。

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.

最後一個遺憾是，我當時沒能預見到，進行這樣一個一周七天、一天24小時晝夜不停的實驗需要大量的人力支持。三個研究生和我四個人組成的團隊沒有能力應付保持監獄正常運轉和觀察、記錄實驗數據的所有任務，更不用說那些出乎意料的突髮狀況，比如說應對犯人情緒失控，替換犯人這樣的任務。

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.

當然，過一段時間我們中間就有一個人需要休息，我當時睡在樓上心理學院辦公室的沙發上。在人手緊缺的情況下，我有一個學生家裡有急事，需要中途離開，意味著我們只剩下三個人來運轉實驗，監管整個監獄。很明顯我們需要一個更大的團隊。

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

問題3：在實驗期間發生的對您影響最大、最深遠的事情是什麼？

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.

請允許我講一件非常個人的事情，這件事情直接導致我在僅僅六天後就終止了預定時間為兩周的實驗。在第五天的晚上，我邀請了我的女友，Christina Maslach，到地下室來參觀實驗展現出來的非凡的群體動態，之後我們可以一起共進晚餐。

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，當時是加州伯克利大學的一位新晉教授。我們剛搬到一起住不久，打算將來結婚。

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，當她目睹了獄警們極儘可能地羞辱和傷害犯人的種種後，她說自己沒辦法再看下去了，跑出地下室、一直跑到心理學院前面的空地上才停下來。我當時完全沒辦法理解她的激烈反應，還一度嘲笑她居然沒有意識到實驗中展現出來的現象是多麼的驚人。

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.

在這個時候，她痛斥我說，這些人並不是什麼犯人和獄警，他們只是一群男孩，而現在正在遭受非人的待遇。而我對在他們身上發生的一切負有不可推卸的責任。她還說，我被我自己創造出來的環境改變了，我變成了名副其實的典獄長，不再是一個實驗者。

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?」

她說，「你現在這個樣子我完全沒辦法理解，因為我所了解的你是一個愛護學生的人，而現在你看著學生受苦受罪而完全無動於衷！」

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

她最後說了一句話，「如果現在這個你就是你真實的樣子，那麼我不想再跟你繼續我們的關係了。」

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!

我突然醒悟過來，就像從噩夢中驚醒一樣，一瞬間完完全全意識到她是對的，而我錯得不能再錯。我居然允許那麼多邪惡的事情在我的監獄裡面遍地開花。

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，我決定在第二天終止實驗。後來我也是這麼做的。

(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.)

（實驗終止後，我的研究生和我一起分別對犯人和獄警進行了長達數小時的事後情況說明，然後對犯人和獄警全體進行了高強度的心理干預。另外，在實驗結束兩周後，他們全部返回，觀看了實驗的影像資料。這些資料記錄了他們在斯坦福監獄實驗中扮演犯人或扮演獄警進行的一系列活動。之後，我們對當時的參與者進行了大量的回訪和調查，確保他們在此次事件過後沒有長期的消極影響。）

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.

最後，對於這位對最高權威進行正面對抗的女士，我又該怎麼做呢？在第二年的夏天，八月十日，我們在斯坦福的禮堂舉行了婚禮。在隨後的四十五年中，我們有一段美滿的婚姻，和兩個出色的女兒。

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 onobedience to authority.

而我們當初戲劇性的對峙，以及斯坦福監獄實驗的種種影像資料，都被記錄在2006年的電視紀錄片《人類行為實驗》中了。奧斯卡金像獎導演，Alex Gibney，執導此部紀錄片。影片還包含了 Stanley Milgram 的「服從權威」實驗。

( 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，在二十世紀六十年代分別進行了著名的盲從權威實驗的 PhilipZimbardo 和 Stanley Milgram，在青年時代是James Monroe高中 的同學，並同時畢業於1950年。）

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

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

我即將在 7 月 6 日舉行的知乎 Live。到那時我會與大家分享更多有趣的經歷。

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

同時，我也會在知乎上出版一本關於心理學的電子書。

希望大家會喜歡。

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