The Stanford Prison Experiment, which occurred in August 1971, is one of those projects that gets mentioned in basically ALL educational material addressing research ethics. We know a lot about the study’s general outlines, but we don’t hear a lot directly from the people involved anymore. A Stanford publication recently made a 2011 article about the experiment available again. We here at IRB Blog headquarters found it a riveting read — its author profiles study participants and investigators, allowing them to give their impressions of the project. We strongly encourage you to read the entire piece.
And when you’re finished, we direct your attention to a recent commentary in the Wall Street Journal titled “Studies Are Usually Bunk, Study Shows.” One problem the author cites is that a huge amount of behavioral research involves college students as subjects. So if these studies’ findings don’t reflect your own experience, “that’s probably because you’re not a hung-over college student,” the author writes. This particular article is behind the Wall Street Journal’s paywall. Fear not, however — the wizards who work in the IRB Blog Library were able to access the full text and can email you a PDF if you’d like. Please contact the library staff at paalediths@uams.edu. It will also be very helpful if you included the following text in your email: “Edith, you stored in the creatively-named folder ‘Edith’ on your desktop.”