Zimbardo undertook graduate school training in the Yale Attitude Change Program, headed by his mentor, Carl Hovland, an influential psychologist in his own right. This experience inspired a long term interest in the processes of attitude and behavior change produced by persuasion. In addition to a series of early experiments on variables involved in the persuasion-attitude change relationship, Zimbardo broadened this interest into the larger category of Mind Control. He conceived of mind control as a phenomena encompassing all the ways in which personal, social and institutional forces are exerted to induce compliance, conformity, belief, attitude, and value change in others. After working personally with several members of Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple cult, who had escaped the suicide/massacre in the Guyana jungle in 1978, Zimbardo became fascinated with the uniquely intense psychological context and forces involved in cult recruitment, identification, and internalization — and how they could be resisted.
Selected Publications:
- Zimbardo, Philip., Mark, S., James, T., Alice, G., & Sharon, G. (1970). Modifying the impact of persuasive communications with external distraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16(4), 669.
- Zimbardo, P. G. (1972). The tactics and ethics of persuasion. In Attitudes, conflict, and social change (pp. 81-99). Academic Press.
- Zimbardo, P.G. (2005). Fictional concepts become operational realities in Jim Jones’ jungle experiment. In A. Gleason, J. Goldsmith, & M. Nussbaum (Eds.). On nineteen eighty-four: Orwell and our future. (pp.127-154). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- Zimbardo, P. G. (2008). Jonestown heroes. In F. M. McGehee III (Ed.). The Jonestown Report 10.
- Zimbardo, P. G. (2020). How Orwell’s 1984 has influenced Rev. Jim Jones to dominate and then destroy his followers: With extensions to current political leaders. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 26(1), 4.