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Stanford psychologist behind the controversial “Stanford Prison Experiment” dies at 91
Philip G. Zimbardo, the psychologist behind the controversial “Stanford Prison Experiment” that was intended to examine the psychological experiences of imprisonment, has died. He was 91.
Stanford University announced Friday that Zimbardo died Oct. 14 at his home in San Francisco. A cause of death was not provided.
In the 1971 prison study, Zimbardo and a team of graduate students recruited college-aged males to spend two weeks in a mock prison in the basement of a building on the Stanford campus.
The study was ended after six days as the students playing guards became psychologically abusive and those playing prisoners became anxious, emotionally depressed and enraged, according to the Stanford statement.
Zimbardo was criticized for taking the role of superintendent – becoming an active participant in the study and no longer a neutral observer.
“The outcome of our study was shocking and unexpected,” Zimbardo would later co-write with one of the graduate students who was part of the project.
The experiment is now used in psychology classes to study the psychology of evil and the ethics of psychological research with human subjects, Stanford said.
Zimbardo’s research also included persuasion, hypnosis, cults, shyness, time perspective, altruism, and compassion, Stanford said.
Zimbardo is survived by his wife, Christina Maslach Zimbardo, three children and four grandchildren.
The trial of the man accused of murdering two girls in Delphi, Indiana, continued for its second day on Saturday with testimony from a former local police chief and two people who searched for Abby Williams and Libby German in 2017.
Saturday’s testimony dug deeper into the initial reports that the two teenage girls were missing and the immediate response to try to find them.
Richard Allen, the pharmacy technician accused of killing the girls, stands charged with murder.
In 2017, the girls went for a hike and never returned. Their bodies were found the next day.
Allen was arrested and charged in 2022.
Two members of the search party for the girls testified.
Jake Johns remembered someone seeing footprints down the hill to the riverbank. A description that fits the prosecutor’s theory that the person who killed forced them to walk down the hill to the side of the creek.
Later, the same witness saw what ended up being German’s tie-dye shirt floating in the water.
Pat Brown, another witness, told the jury he was the one who found the girls’ bodies. He remembered calling out “We found ’em!” and added “I thought they were mannequins.” He voice cracked as he testified.
During Friday’s opening statements, the jury heard the girls’ cause of death: someone had cut their throats.
Prosecutors said German was found without clothes the day after she and Williams were reported missing. Williams was wearing her friend’s clothes.
Allen maintained he is innocent.
The trial will pick up again on Monday. The judge told jurors that they can expect proceedings to be quite lengthy.
The jury will likely hear from law enforcement as they got to the scene and started their investigation.
At least seven people were killed Saturday after part of a ferry dock collapsed on Georgia’s Sapelo Island, authorities said.
Multiple people were taken to hospitals, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard, the McIntosh County Fire Department, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and others were searching the water, according to spokesperson Tyler Jones of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, which operates the dock.
Jones said a gangway at the dock collapsed and sent people plunging into the water. It happened as crowds gathered on the island for a celebration of its tiny Gullah-Geechee community of Black slave descendants.
“There have been seven fatalities confirmed,” Jones said. “There have been multiple people transported to area hospitals, and we are continuing to search the water for individuals.”
Jones said he did not know what caused the gangway to collapse, but officials believe there were at least 20 people on it at the time. The gangway connected an outer dock where people board the ferry to another dock onshore.
Among the dead was a chaplain for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Jones said.
Sapelo Island is about 60 miles south of Savannah and is reachable from the mainland by boat.
Cultural Day is an annual fall event spotlighting the island’s tiny community of Hogg Hummock, which is home to a few dozen Black residents. The community of dirt roads and modest homes was founded by former slaves from the cotton plantation of Thomas Spalding.
Small communities descended from enslaved island populations in the South — known as Gullah, or Geechee in Georgia — are scattered along the coast from North Carolina to Florida. Scholars say their separation from the mainland caused residents to retain much of their African heritage, from their unique dialect to skills and crafts such as cast-net fishing and weaving baskets.
A man accused of drugging and sexually assaulting nine women at his homes in Los Angeles County, allegedly killing one of the victims as she died from being drugged, is facing more than a dozen felony charges, prosecutors said Friday.
Michael DiGiorgio, 50, allegedly committed the assaults between May 2019 and November 2021 at his homes in Redondo and Hermosa Beach, according to the LA County District Attorney’s Office. He has been charged with 18 felony counts including murder, forcible rape and rape of an unconscious person, prosecutors said, and faces up to life in state prison if convicted of all charges.
Prosecutors have also filed a special allegation that he caused great bodily injury to a victim during the furnishing of a controlled substance, which carries a sentencing enhancement under California Penal Code Section 12022.7.
DiGiorgio was scheduled to be arraigned at a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. CBS News Los Angeles has reached out to the DA’s office for information on how he pleaded.
Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
No other details about the alleged crimes or the investigation were released by the DA’s office in a statement.
“I extend my deepest sympathy to the victims, whose lives have been irrevocably changed and the life lost by the alleged brutal acts of the offender,” District Attorney George Gascón said in the statement. “I encourage anyone with information related to these incidents or any other incidents regarding Mr. DiGiorgio to report it to the Redondo Beach Police Department.”
Prosecutors released a photo of DiGiorgio as investigators believe there could be more victims out there.
The charges filed against him include:
- one count of murder
- one felony count of forcible rape
- two felony counts of forcible sexual penetration
- three felony counts of rape by use of a drug
- two felony counts of sodomy by use of a drug
- five felony counts of sexual penetration by use of a drug
- one felony count of oral copulation by use of a drug
- one felony count of rape of an unconscious person
- two felony counts of furnishing a controlled substance
The Sex Crimes Division of the DA’s office and Redondo Beach Police Department are investigating the case. Anyone who may be a victim or has other information is asked to reach Redondo Beach police at 714-863-2859.
