The Lucifer Effect

The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
Adult Non-Fiction-Upper Level 155.9 Z

Human beings (and social psychologists in particular) have often wondered what drives people to do horrible things. Are the situations we find ourselves in partially to blame for why normal people do morally questionable things? Famed psychologist Philip Zimbardo’s The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil examines how situational forces and group interaction can cause the average person to commit inhumane acts. Zimbardo is best known for the Stanford Prison Experiment in August 1971 which the majority of this book discusses in detail. In this experiment, Zimbardo took a group of college volunteers and randomly divided them up into “inmate” and “guard” groups while inside a mock prison environment. To complete the illusion, the guards were dressed in realistic guard attire and carried around wooden clubs while the inmates were called by numbers instead of names and were also locked up at night. Zimbardo was interested in seeing how much a certain setting or situation contributes to a person’s actions and sense of identity.

The experiment did not take long to spiral out of control. While the guards were not allowed to physically hurt the inmates, they found other ways of asserting their authority. The guards took away food, forced the inmates to do repeated pushups, and committed other dehumanizing acts. The inmates tried different techniques to rebel such as hunger strikes and blocking the doors to their cells. The experiment was supposed to run for two weeks but was stopped after six days. The participants had completely disappeared into their roles. In the rest of the book, Zimbardo applies his findings to more current events such as the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and discusses how the system failed the people involved. It appears that the book concludes that most people can be coerced into committing horrible acts under the right circumstances if the setting encourages it or does nothing to prevent bad actions. But all hope is not lost as Zimbardo offers steps to help people and society become more humane in order to make sure the situational factors which cause these atrocities can be lessened over time. All in all, a fascinating read for anyone who is curious about why mankind often strays from a nobler path.