Researchers question their own ethics

These ethical concerns led to the SPE's termination after six days when Zimbardo's fiancée, Christina Maslach, threatened to end their relationship if the experiment continued (Maslach & Zimbardo, 2000). Zimbardo (2007) argued that the SPE offered critical insights into situational influences on behavior, drawing parallels to ethical lapses at Abu Ghraib. Yet, critics contend that this analogy oversimplifies complex institutional factors (Blum, 2018). Consequently, contemporary scholars argue that the SPE's ethical violations overshadow its findings, prompting stricter ethical guidelines in psychological research (APA, 2017).