THE LUCIFER EFFECT: UNDERSTANDING HOW GOOD PEOPLE TURN EVIL, by Philip Zimbardo, Random House, 551 pages, $27.95
An intriguing look at human nature, "The Lucifer Effect" is the result of a project the author started 30 years ago, the Stanford Prison Experiment.
This landmark study had a group of college-student volunteers randomly divided into "guards" and "inmates," and placed in a mock-prison environment.
The Stanford study simulated a symbolic prison in the basement of Jordan Hall. Uniforms were used to make it clear who were the guards and who were the inmates. The inmates were supposed to stay in their cells or in the yard for the entire experiment, so they could come to understand emotionally the life of one whose freedom has been taken away.
The guards worked eight-hour shifts, and they soon began taking on dominant personalities expected of guards. Some guards were more arrogant than others. One in particular, nicknamed the John Wayne of the guards, came on duty one day, acting as if he were a very nice guy, then changed into the uniform and instantaneously became a mean man who would curse loudly at the inmates.
The study lasted only one week, because these students quickly became either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. Those who were suffering were released from the experiment.
It was especially surprising to Zimbardo that even though he was leading the experiment, even he got caught up in it, unable to rationalize the dehumanization that was taking place before him. When he brought the experiment to a premature end, he was shaken.
Zimbardo is now professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University, and has taught at Yale, Columbia and New York Universities. In 2004, he was an expert witness in the court-martial hearings for one of the American Army reservists accused of criminal behavior in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
He includes a chapter on the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities, and there are some surprising similarities between Iraq and the Stanford study. Zimbardo also includes many written reactions from those who participated in the Stanford study as they reflected on the experience, trying to see how it affected them.
One student who had been a guard claimed that in his current business life he bends over backward not to offend people and especially not to fire people, constantly worrying what the loss of a job would do to that person.
Primarily, it was startling that all of the students could so easily transform themselves into this horrible prison environment, taking on whatever characteristics they thought they needed for survival.
Zimbardo's definition of evil is this: "Evil consists in intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse, demean, dehumanize or destroy innocent others — or using one's authority and systemic power to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf. In short, it is 'knowing better but doing worse."'
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