But it eventually morphed into something far more than that. This field study was a simple demonstration of how something that is clearly neglected can quickly become a target for vandals.
After that, passersby quickly ripped it apart, just as they'd done in New York. But in Palo Alto, the other car remained untouched for more than a week.įinally, Zimbardo did something unusual: He took a sledgehammer and gave the California car a smash. Both cars were left without license plates and parked with their hoods up.Īfter just 10 minutes, passersby in New York City began vandalizing the car. He abandoned two cars in two very different places: one in a mostly poor, crime-ridden section of New York City, and the other in a fairly affluent neighborhood of Palo Alto, Calif. In 1969, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist from Stanford University, ran an interesting field study. The 'broken windows' theory of policing suggested that cleaning up the visible signs of disorder - like graffiti, loitering, panhandling and prostitution - would prevent more serious crime.
