The life of Professor Philip Zimbardo is a legendary one.
Philip P. The life of Professor Philip Zimbardo is a legendary one. He was the child of an Italian immigrant who came out of the rampant neighborhood of New York City, and eventually became a top professor at the world's most famous university, and married the beautiful daughter of the dean of the University of California, Berkeley's School of Social Sciences; he published many best-selling books, became the top leader in the field, became the most famous social psychologist, and filmed an experimental documentary that also had a movie star addiction. Zimbardo is an epoch-making figure, even according to today's post-90s and post-zero standards, it is definitely a proper postmodern Internet celebrity.
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Professor Zimbardo's lifelong psychological research is actually a warning to us to constantly push through various limitations and limits:
Everyone is trapped by various mental cages in many cases, and although in most cases people are not aware of (or do not want to admit) the existence of the cages, they are in fact constantly affected and troubled by them. From prisoner of the mind to hero of growth is not only possible, but certain. This process of turning cocoons into butterflies is actually the most important life experience process for a person to constantly break through the cage of the soul. A person grows, matures, and finds meaning and value in life. Everyone can become that ordinary hero by breaking the cage of the heart.
Zimbardo wrote to himself an epitaph
By deeply understanding Professor Zimbardo's thoughts, we can get a clearer picture of why our hearts are trapped.
Professor Zimbardo's most influential research, known to almost everyone who has studied psychology, is that he completed the well-known "Stanford Prison Experiment" in the laboratory of stanford university's psychology department.
In the summer of 1971, Professor Zimbardo boldly and creatively transformed the basement of the Choden Building, the building of Stanford University's Department of Psychology, into a simulated prison. He selected 24 young people who were physically and mentally healthy, law-abiding and emotionally stable from a pool of students who had signed up for the experiment. The young men were randomly divided into three groups: 9 prisoners, 9 guards, and 6 alternates. Professor Zimbardo's original plan was to observe the changes in the physical, psychological and behavioural aspects of the two groups of "prisoners and guards" over the next 2 weeks (14 days). But I didn't expect that such a simple artificial division of labor would make those rich middle-class children really believe that they were "guards or prisoners" in less than 6 days of less than 1 week. Even more shocking is that those who have taken on the position of guards have begun to abuse the prisoners emotionally and physically! Young people who played the role of prisoners began to show resistance and obedience to authority, then depression and depression, and even serious suicidal tendencies. A "fake play" for experimentation has become the most indisputable "real work" in the history of modern psychological research.
This unexpected result stunned Professor Zimbardo's lover at the time, Maslach, who had just gotten an assistant professorship at the University of California, Berkeley. She did not hesitate to come forward and demand that Zimbardo terminate the experiment. Because, even Zimbardo himself did not realize that as the designer of the experiment, he had in fact become the supreme referee who dominated the experimental situation. Zimbardo later admitted in the book The Lucifer Effect that he was deeply involved in the play, and it was Maslach who alerted him, so he followed the advice of his lover and immediately terminated the experiment. As a result, the controversial "Stanford Prison Experiment" became an unfinished study in the history of psychology.
Although the "Stanford Prison Experiment" was not finally completed, even so, the experiment had already broken through the cognitive limits of the people at that time. "Circumstances can slowly change a person, while circumstances can change a person right away. A good angel can also turn into a terrifying devil in special situations. Professor Zimbardo's "Stanford Prison Experiment" completely and ruthlessly reveals the naked "fragility of human nature", vividly illustrating that "after people have power, this sense of authority has a significant impact and change on themselves and others." At the same time, the "Stanford Prison Experiment" demonstrates to some extent that "after the group shows obedience and docileness to authority, how the behavior and psychology of individuals will be greatly affected..."
The astonishing changes in character behavior under the influence of situations have sparked heated discussions internationally, and the Stanford Prison Experiment is no longer just a psychological experiment that uses rigorous experimental methods to demonstrate the effects of situations on human behavior, but also makes people think about the intrinsic relationship between good intentions and evil deeds and the environment. Because the "Stanford Prison Experiment" withstood various tests of time and cross-culture in the decades after its birth, it proved to be remarkable, and in 2011, the American Science Magazine published a special article to commemorate this famous experiment.
The "Stanford Prison Experiment" and Zimbardo's greatness are because he and his experiments are concerned with the question of "the eternity of human nature." Like what:
What makes a person evil?
Does a good person sometimes do bad things?
If good people can also get bad, then what makes people cross that border?
And Zimbardo's experiment answers these sensitive questions to some extent. At the very least we can know at the moment, that circumstances can greatly affect a good man and make him evil. If power is left unchecked, it can also cause great harm to others, including ourselves. Even Zimbardo himself, in this experiment, ignored the psychological harm that the participants in the experiment might suffer due to the needs of their own work. So we would like to thank Professor Maslach for his keen awareness of the impact the study might have had on these participants (I was later fortunate enough to be a colleague of Professor Maslach's Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley; as our Vice Provost, she also cared about and cared for my work and growth).
In contrast, in real life, we often see scenes similar to the "Stanford Prison Experiment". Especially when people lose their sense of self, self-judgment, and self-conscience, we are easily driven by general trends such as others, situations, and environments. Based on years of research by Professor Zimbardo, he published Lucifer effect: understanding how good people turn evil in 2007. "Lucifer" is the guardian of light, once God's favorite archangel, but because he challenged God's authority, led a group of fallen angels into hell, and eventually became God's opponent, satan the devil. This is a tragic story, but it also conveys a similar message to the "Stanford Prison Experiment" in a mythological way. This warns human beings to control their emotions and actions, and not to change themselves or others from "Lucifer" to "Satan the Devil" because of these uncontrolled mistakes, ignorance, arrogance and prejudice.
The phenomenon of "shyness" is another important area of Professor Zimbardo's research. In studying the causes of "shyness", Professor Zimbardo found that in real life, there are far more "shy" people than we think, and this proportion has increased over time.
Through Zimbardo's research, we found that what used to be "shy" meant that a person showed a sense of timidity because he didn't know much how to communicate with people. With the development of the times, "shyness" has evolved more and more into the subjective attitude and value orientation of "unwilling to communicate with people". The emergence of electronic products seems to be the best excuse for people not to communicate with others, especially many teenagers, who are addicted to video games and online videos, lost in virtual space and plot, and lost a lot of real-life opportunities to communicate face-to-face with parents and partners.
The more so, the more closed they are, the more lonely they appear, and the less opportunities they have for social learning and exercise between people. Because of this, many people have begun to become "shy", become "lonely", become "indifferent", and become more "withdrawn".
They can't overcome their inner "sense of shyness" and learn to hide in the crowd and watch, and their presence pursuit is no longer the highlight in front of people, but hides behind them. This is a trap of modernization, and it is also a psychological cover that modern people have to face and solve seriously.
Here we recommend that you read another book by Zimbardo, "No Longer Shy"
A rich and splendid life is always better than a dry and fragile life, so how can people exceed the negative impact of social roles and social expectations on people? Is there any way to get people to calm down, ask themselves, and stick to their faith? In response to these "problems of the century", Professor Zimbardo proposed the "10-step method" to help people overcome the influence of similar "demons".
First, admit mistakes
Let us accept that "everyone has had it", and only by realizing that we can also make mistakes can we get rid of the control of the devil.
Second, think independently
We must be more aware of our own experiences, behaviors, and lives, just like we Chinese often remind us to "my day and three provinces and my body."
Third, take responsibility
In any case, we must take responsibility for our own decisions and actions, not just blame outsiders and the environment; because all human behavior is affected by the interaction of internal and external factors. And once we deny our responsibilities, we cannot learn from our mistakes to make progress.
Fourth, be the best version of yourself
First of all, we should not forget our original intentions and always maintain our conscience; at the same time, we should release information about ourselves, so as to de-anonymize the social state, but pay attention to avoid giving people negative stereotypes.
Fifth, respect the authority of justice, not the authority of evil
We respect the rights and position of authority, but we do not necessarily have to respect the person in the position of authority. Because not all powers, authorities, experts, and institutions are righteous, many selfish people use these righteous institutions to do their own evil things. Therefore, we must distinguish between people in institutions and representative institutions; and this attitude of distinguishing between people and things is also a particularly important thinking ability to maintain our own rationality.
Sixth, integrate into the group, but maintain your own independence
We must not lose our personality, dignity and independent spirit in order to cater to others.
Seventh, always maintain vigilance against the so-called "stereotypes."
That is, to be aware that someone might put our minds, thoughts, and behaviors into a particular pattern and framework. As the saying goes, "The heart of defending people must not be without, and the heart of harming people must not be there", which requires us to maintain a vigilance of "avoiding being used by others".
Eighth, maintain the best concept of time
Don't think too closely, but don't think too far; but with the best, balanced conception of time, not illusory and not obsessed with the past.
Ninth, we must not sacrifice people's reasonable rights and freedoms for the sake of illusion
Be especially careful that people use fear, anger, threats, and other scary accidents and scenes to confuse us and control us. At all times, human dignity, freedom and happiness are the most important points of life.
Ten, resist any injustice
Rights should be used by citizens, not just subjected to power. This simple truth is often overlooked in many parts of the world today. We must cherish the system we enjoy and be wary of the articles that people with ulterior motives use to do with it, in order to achieve the pace that hinders our rational development and national rejuvenation.