Sad news: Ig Nobel Prize winner Phil Zimbardo has died

Phil Zimbardo died on October 14. His obituary is online. One of his lesser professional accomplishments came in 2003 when that year’s Ig Nobel Prize in psychology was awarded to Gian Vittorio Caprara, Claudio Barbaranelli, and Philip Zimbardo, for their report “Politicians’ Uniquely Simple Personalities.” That study was published in Nature, vol. 385, February 1997, […]

Abusing robots – current positions [part 1 of 4]

“The shocks are becoming too much.” “Please, please stop.” “My circuits cannot handle the voltage.” “I refuse to go on with the experiment.” “That was too painful, the shocks are hurting me.” The dialogue above may remind readers of Stanley Milgram’s disturbing (and now-classic) psychology experiments on authority and obedience (1963). But there’s a difference. […]

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