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Philip Zimbardo

The Lucifer Effect

We tend to think of goodness or badness as inate to a person's character. Philip Zimbardo disagrees, and in The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil he shows how the situations people find themselves in play a large part in how they behave.

The book starts with a description of the Stanford Prison Experiment, where a group of students were split into 'guards' and 'prisoners' for a two week period - except that they took to their new roles so completely that the experiment was terminated after a few days. Zimbardo goes on to discuss other experiments showing how easily people adopt roles determined by what is going on around them, with a detailed description of his involvement in the Abu Ghraib prison abuse investigations.

Its a long book and I had worried that I might get bogged down in the story of the SPE before getting on to the discussion of other examples. In fact this was the most gripping part of the book, and it was towards the end of that I found myself flagging, in particular the long Abu Ghraib chapters. The last chapter on resisting situational influence seemed to be more about defining the word 'Hero'. In summary, the book has an important message, but don't feel that you have to read it all the way to the end.

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Paperback 576 pages
ISBN: 0812974441
Salesrank: 6545
Weight:1 lbs

Published: 2008 Random House Trade Paperbacks

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Paperback 576 pages
ISBN: 1846041031
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Published: 2008 Rider & Co

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Paperback 576 pages
ISBN: 0812974441
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Published: 2008 Random House Trade Paperbacks

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Product Description
What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it? Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains how–and the myriad reasons why–we are all susceptible to the lure of “the dark side.” Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women. Zimbardo is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here, for the first time and in detail, he tells the full story of this landmark study, in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards” and “inmates” and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. He replaces the long-held notion of the “bad apple” with that of the “bad barrel”–the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around. This is a book that dares to hold a mirror up to mankind, showing us that we might not be who we think we are. While forcing us to reexamine what we are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics, though, Zimbardo also offers hope. We are capable of resisting evil, he argues, and can even teach ourselves to act heroically. Like Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, The Lucifer Effect is a shocking, engrossing study that will change the way we view human behavior. From the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it?

Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains how–and the myriad reasons why–we are all susceptible to the lure of “the dark side.” Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women.

Zimbardo is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here, for the first time and in detail, he tells the full story of this landmark study, in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into “guards” and “inmates” and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners.

By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. He replaces the long-held notion of the “bad apple” with that of the “bad barrel”–the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around.

This is a book that dares to hold a mirror up to mankind, showing us that we might not be who we think we are. While forcing us to reexamine what we are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics, though, Zimbardo also offers hope. We are capable of resisting evil, he argues, and can even teach ourselves to act heroically. Like Hannah Arendt’s Eichmann in Jerusalem and Steven Pinker’s The Blank Slate, The Lucifer Effect is a shocking, engrossing study that will change the way we view human behavior.

From the Hardcover edition.

Scientifically revealed evil, impact lessened by less-scientific final chapters ****
The transition, within two days, of normal college students into sadistic beasts on one side and passive victims on the other chilled me because of the ease by which they fell into those roles when the students found themselves in the right set of circumstances. I found myself contemplating the parallels of the experiment's results and the behaviors it revealed and the snippets I've read of what happens inside of cults like Jim Jones' People's Temple and even larger political societies whose behavior seems so foreign and bizarre that I still have difficult relating to it. The scope of the discussions of the studies which followed had the same implications in that being human means being capable of evil, and I found myself noticing all the little ways people give over to it every day from the level of office politics to a breezy contemplation of war with some 'other'. After about three hundred pages, this scope shrunk until it had focused on a single target - Bush, and as the scope shrunk, the level of scholarship dropped as well. This reached an end when Dr. Zimbardo's meticulous research on evil descended into advice on heroism from a 'street-wise' kid from New York. The transition was jarring and, for me, damaged the persuasiveness of the earlier chapters, but even so, I still recommend this book and, minus the final three chapters, believe Dr. Zimbardo has revealed something which will be with me for a long time.

Scientifically revealed evil, impact lessened by less-scientific final chapters ****

The transition, within two days, of normal college students into sadistic beasts on one side and passive victims on the other chilled me because of the ease by which they fell into those roles when the students found themselves in the right set of circumstances. I found myself contemplating the parallels of the experiment's results and the behaviors it revealed and the snippets I've read of what happens inside of cults like Jim Jones' People's Temple and even larger political societies whose behavior seems so foreign and bizarre that I still have difficult relating to it.

The scope of the discussions of the studies which followed had the same implications in that being human means being capable of evil, and I found myself noticing all the little ways people give over to it every day from the level of office politics to a breezy contemplation of war with some 'other'.

After about three hundred pages, this scope shrunk until it had focused on a single target - Bush, and as the scope shrunk, the level of scholarship dropped as well. This reached an end when Dr. Zimbardo's meticulous research on evil descended into advice on heroism from a 'street-wise' kid from New York.

The transition was jarring and, for me, damaged the persuasiveness of the earlier chapters, but even so, I still recommend this book and, minus the final three chapters, believe Dr. Zimbardo has revealed something which will be with me for a long time.

Cheap and quick *****
Quick shipping, received it in just a few days. Just as described, recommend seller and will do business with him again.

Cheap and quick *****

Quick shipping, received it in just a few days. Just as described, recommend seller and will do business with him again.

A riveting account of how good people can go bad *****
It's a safe bet the first few sentences of Professor Zimbardo's obituary will define him in terms of the (infamous) "Stanford Prison study". In the early 1960s Stanley Milgram had shocked the scientific community with his series of "obedience experiments" that showed how an apparently strongly hardwired obedience to authority could lead people to commit barbaric acts of cruelty. A decade later Zimbardo eliminated any possible doubt when a simulated "prison experiment" he was conducting on the Stanford campus had to be discontinued early for ethical reasons because the behavior of the participating students had degenerated into "Lord of the Flies" savagery within a period of only 4 days. The first 200 pages of this book are given over to a description of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). The middle third covers lessons learned from SPE and summarizes other experimental work related to the problem of people behaving badly. The final 200 pages discusses events at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, as well as other excesses of the Bush administration in terms of what has been learned about human behavior from the SPE and similar experiments. To me, it's this final part of the book that is the most interesting. The initial material is readable enough, but seems way over-extended. I suspect that very few people (or the kind of people reading this book) are unaware of the SPE, so summarizing the main findings in 20-30 pages should have been possible, instead of the 200-page account which helps inflate "The Lucifer Effect" to a bloated 550 pages. That said, I remain a fan of Doctor Zimbardo. Even if the book is a little too long, he is always clear. And though what he has to say can be depressing, it's clearly not wrong. Understanding our own weaknesses and the factors that can allow cruelty and evil to flourish seems more important than ever these days. This is an important, valuable book.

A riveting account of how good people can go bad *****

It's a safe bet the first few sentences of Professor Zimbardo's obituary will define him in terms of the (infamous) "Stanford Prison study". In the early 1960s Stanley Milgram had shocked the scientific community with his series of "obedience experiments" that showed how an apparently strongly hardwired obedience to authority could lead people to commit barbaric acts of cruelty. A decade later Zimbardo eliminated any possible doubt when a simulated "prison experiment" he was conducting on the Stanford campus had to be discontinued early for ethical reasons because the behavior of the participating students had degenerated into "Lord of the Flies" savagery within a period of only 4 days.

The first 200 pages of this book are given over to a description of the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). The middle third covers lessons learned from SPE and summarizes other experimental work related to the problem of people behaving badly. The final 200 pages discusses events at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, as well as other excesses of the Bush administration in terms of what has been learned about human behavior from the SPE and similar experiments.

To me, it's this final part of the book that is the most interesting. The initial material is readable enough, but seems way over-extended. I suspect that very few people (or the kind of people reading this book) are unaware of the SPE, so summarizing the main findings in 20-30 pages should have been possible, instead of the 200-page account which helps inflate "The Lucifer Effect" to a bloated 550 pages.

That said, I remain a fan of Doctor Zimbardo. Even if the book is a little too long, he is always clear. And though what he has to say can be depressing, it's clearly not wrong. Understanding our own weaknesses and the factors that can allow cruelty and evil to flourish seems more important than ever these days. This is an important, valuable book.

Great Book, But You Have to Get Into It ****
This is a great read in the studies of human psychology. What an interesting look at the situational circumstances that can turn good, average people into such terrible creatures. The first chapters get long, but it is very worth it in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the studies of human character.

Great Book, But You Have to Get Into It ****

This is a great read in the studies of human psychology. What an interesting look at the situational circumstances that can turn good, average people into such terrible creatures. The first chapters get long, but it is very worth it in the end. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the studies of human character.

Excellent Insight Into Human Nature *****
"The Lucifer Effect" delves into the nature of good vs. evil and how under the right set of circumstances, normal, everyday, people can be turned into tormentors of their fellow human beings. Once an individual is dehumanized it is quite easy for them to be the target of torture and abuse. This whole scenario is exemplified by what happened from 1933-1945 in Hitler's Germany and its treatment of German citizens of Jewish background. Ordinary German citizens joined the SS and became vile brutes under the excuse of "following orders". If you want an American example of the Lucifer effect, read the book: "House of Evil" by John Dean. It tells the story of how in the heart of Middle America in 1965, an all American girl named Sylvia Likens was dehumanized, tortured and finally murdered by another American family. The very same factors came into play, dehumanization of the victim, humiliation, verbal and physical abuse and then torture and mayhem resulting in murder. The perpetrators? a divorcee, some of her kids and other neighborhood kids. All American kids who willingly participated in vile brutality upon one of their peers. I think both books are excellent reading, "The Lucifer Effect" provides the background while "House of Evil" cites the actual example.

Excellent Insight Into Human Nature *****

"The Lucifer Effect" delves into the nature of good vs. evil and how under the right set of circumstances, normal, everyday, people can be turned into tormentors of their fellow human beings. Once an individual is dehumanized it is quite easy for them to be the target of torture and abuse. This whole scenario is exemplified by what happened from 1933-1945 in Hitler's Germany and its treatment of German citizens of Jewish background. Ordinary German citizens joined the SS and became vile brutes under the excuse of "following orders". If you want an American example of the Lucifer effect, read the book: "House of Evil" by John Dean. It tells the story of how in the heart of Middle America in 1965, an all American girl named Sylvia Likens was dehumanized, tortured and finally murdered by another American family. The very same factors came into play, dehumanization of the victim, humiliation, verbal and physical abuse and then torture and mayhem resulting in murder. The perpetrators? a divorcee, some of her kids and other neighborhood kids. All American kids who willingly participated in vile brutality upon one of their peers. I think both books are excellent reading, "The Lucifer Effect" provides the background while "House of Evil" cites the actual example.

A significant read *****
Nice readable, entertaing style as you might expect from Prof Zimbardo. An interesting and worthwhile read in the current climate.

A significant read *****

Nice readable, entertaing style as you might expect from Prof Zimbardo. An interesting and worthwhile read in the current climate.

NIce Experience ****
This happens to be my very first online transaction with Amazon Uk, and it has proved right and reliable. The books I ordered for arrived about 6 days earlier than the expected time and in good and secured condition. I did succeed with them, you too will. [ASIN:1846041031 The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil]]Ceejay.Rome, Italy

NIce Experience ****

This happens to be my very first online transaction with Amazon Uk, and it has proved right and reliable. The books I ordered for arrived about 6 days earlier than the expected time and in good and secured condition. I did succeed with them, you too will. [ASIN:1846041031 The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil]]Ceejay.Rome, Italy

Beelzebub, as the Devil put aside for me. *****
A worrying insight on how we all have the potential to turn to evil. Based on a 1971 experiment, it is still relevant today, as recent events have illustrated. A book that compels you to look deeper into your own psyche. Well illustraed case studies and edited for the average reader rather than a university psychology student. It is a riveting read, but not in the sense of a page turner but as a reminder that we are all capable of committing extremely bad acts against our fellow human beings.

Beelzebub, as the Devil put aside for me. *****

A worrying insight on how we all have the potential to turn to evil. Based on a 1971 experiment, it is still relevant today, as recent events have illustrated. A book that compels you to look deeper into your own psyche. Well illustraed case studies and edited for the average reader rather than a university psychology student. It is a riveting read, but not in the sense of a page turner but as a reminder that we are all capable of committing extremely bad acts against our fellow human beings.

A significant key to understanding the evils in many environments *****
I found this book just amazing. I learnt so much about how conditions with bad rules as well as no rules with no accountability will encourage a very large majority of people, sometimes as much as 90% of people, to commit acts of evil. This totally shocked me. The reason why I bought this book is that I started to work in a very repressive environment. I had never worked in such an environment before, and I could not understand why, as in previous places I was able to pin such a negative vibe on an individual. At this place I could not. It seemed to me that the system was at play, but no-one was trying to challenge it. This book answered that question - almost all people will comply or enforce negative behaviours. Very senior management, who set the tone and the rules, will also let the negative behaviour occur and do nothing. Very very few people will ever challenge it. And the reason for this : people want to belong and they fear rejection. If they challenge the norms there is a high emotional cost to pay : exactly what happened to me. In a matter of weeks I went from being a confident person to utter depression as I so detested the environment. The last chapter was the saving grace and has enabled me to know how we can work to make working environments better. Thank you Phil. I have four criticisms having read this book: 1. Having read it I seem to trust psychologists less : they seem to create scientific experiments where by volunteers are duped into them, for example they provide adverts to come to an experiment. The advert does not set out what will happen in the experiment. 2. The psychological experiments are always evil. Phil in his last chapter comes up with a thought experiment of doing a good positive behaviour experiment, stating that such a one has not been done. 3. Phil regularly states that the individuals who committed crimes cannot be excused for their crimes. But he never elaborates on this. On the one hand he spends 98% of the book explaining that the conditions caused the bad behaviour, and then 2% (or less) stating that they were responsible for the bad behaviour. For me I want to know why at the end of day do human beings commit evil acts in such bad conditions. Is Phil saying that at the end of the day we are puppets, 100% manipulated by our environment? Or is he saying we are manipulated by say 99% of our environment and that there is 1% within each individual person to choose good or evil? In my heart I believe we are able to choose, and we must learn to choose to find that 1% to do good, and perhaps we can start growing that 1% to 2% to 10% and so on, the maximum I do not know though. Would groups of nuns do the same? Would Jesus and the 12 disciples have done the same? 4. I worry if the social construct of psychology research is to fund evil experiments. I shall keep detached from the research. At one point I was considering studying psychology, but would be concerned that after a while I would end up being manipulated into their social construct. I have now bought Phil's next book : The Time Paradox, and look forward to writing my next review of it

A significant key to understanding the evils in many environments *****

I found this book just amazing. I learnt so much about how conditions with bad rules as well as no rules with no accountability will encourage a very large majority of people, sometimes as much as 90% of people, to commit acts of evil. This totally shocked me.
The reason why I bought this book is that I started to work in a very repressive environment. I had never worked in such an environment before, and I could not understand why, as in previous places I was able to pin such a negative vibe on an individual. At this place I could not. It seemed to me that the system was at play, but no-one was trying to challenge it.
This book answered that question - almost all people will comply or enforce negative behaviours. Very senior management, who set the tone and the rules, will also let the negative behaviour occur and do nothing. Very very few people will ever challenge it. And the reason for this : people want to belong and they fear rejection. If they challenge the norms there is a high emotional cost to pay : exactly what happened to me. In a matter of weeks I went from being a confident person to utter depression as I so detested the environment. The last chapter was the saving grace and has enabled me to know how we can work to make working environments better. Thank you Phil.
I have four criticisms having read this book:
1. Having read it I seem to trust psychologists less : they seem to create scientific experiments where by volunteers are duped into them, for example they provide adverts to come to an experiment. The advert does not set out what will happen in the experiment.
2. The psychological experiments are always evil. Phil in his last chapter comes up with a thought experiment of doing a good positive behaviour experiment, stating that such a one has not been done.
3. Phil regularly states that the individuals who committed crimes cannot be excused for their crimes. But he never elaborates on this. On the one hand he spends 98% of the book explaining that the conditions caused the bad behaviour, and then 2% (or less) stating that they were responsible for the bad behaviour. For me I want to know why at the end of day do human beings commit evil acts in such bad conditions. Is Phil saying that at the end of the day we are puppets, 100% manipulated by our environment? Or is he saying we are manipulated by say 99% of our environment and that there is 1% within each individual person to choose good or evil? In my heart I believe we are able to choose, and we must learn to choose to find that 1% to do good, and perhaps we can start growing that 1% to 2% to 10% and so on, the maximum I do not know though. Would groups of nuns do the same? Would Jesus and the 12 disciples have done the same?
4. I worry if the social construct of psychology research is to fund evil experiments. I shall keep detached from the research. At one point I was considering studying psychology, but would be concerned that after a while I would end up being manipulated into their social construct.
I have now bought Phil's next book : The Time Paradox, and look forward to writing my next review of it

Extremely fascinating and relevant read *****
At first glance I was intimidated at the thickness and small type of the text thinking it would take me weeks to read this book - I finished it in a week!!! Zimbardo has extensively researched this topic as well as having had and been exposed to real-life experience of the environment where evil grows and thrives. I noted in one review that it was felt he made his feelings too clear. I like this about the book, due to his extensive research he has earned the right to a solid opinion on the matter. Saying this, he lays out the facts within the book, so you are able to make your own mind up as to whether you agree with him or not. Zimbardo goes into detail on the Stanford Prison Experiments but also draws parallels from other research carried out by others, both in the lab as well as in the public domain. He also investigates and draws parallels with Abu Ghraib, leaving you with a thorough understanding of what his opinions (and those of many others) are built upon. He ends the book celebrating the good in people and demonstrating how if you can create situations where evil thrives, then you can do the same for goodness. There are many parallels with the corporate world so I do not think it is just politicians who need to read this but also any Organisational Designer, Human Resourcer and Learning and Development personnel could benefit from reading this book!

Extremely fascinating and relevant read *****

At first glance I was intimidated at the thickness and small type of the text thinking it would take me weeks to read this book - I finished it in a week!!!

Zimbardo has extensively researched this topic as well as having had and been exposed to real-life experience of the environment where evil grows and thrives. I noted in one review that it was felt he made his feelings too clear. I like this about the book, due to his extensive research he has earned the right to a solid opinion on the matter. Saying this, he lays out the facts within the book, so you are able to make your own mind up as to whether you agree with him or not.

Zimbardo goes into detail on the Stanford Prison Experiments but also draws parallels from other research carried out by others, both in the lab as well as in the public domain. He also investigates and draws parallels with Abu Ghraib, leaving you with a thorough understanding of what his opinions (and those of many others) are built upon.

He ends the book celebrating the good in people and demonstrating how if you can create situations where evil thrives, then you can do the same for goodness.

There are many parallels with the corporate world so I do not think it is just politicians who need to read this but also any Organisational Designer, Human Resourcer and Learning and Development personnel could benefit from reading this book!

A sobering read ****
Zimbardo is the creator of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, where a group of young college students were randomly split into guards and prisoners in a mock prison for two weeks to see how their roles, the context, and the situation would affect their behavior. Thanks to the intervention of an outsider (Zimbardo himself was too sucked in by the situation to notice), the experiment was stopped short after less than a week as the two groups went wildly out of control. Prisoners were rioting, having nervous breakdowns, and losing all hope while guards became sadistic and authoritarian. Zimbardo quite aptly compares it to the situation at Abu Graib. Context completely took over these normal young adults who had been screened to be just that- healthy, normal young adults. Most of the book is about the experiment, describing it in great depth and detail. Then there's several chapters on other social science research (including Milgram's dramatic studies of authority), two LONG chapters on Abu Graib (not very interesting to this non-American), and one final chapter on heroes. In particular, this book is lacking (in my opinion) more data and commentary on the latter topic of heroes, as well as MUCH more commentary from the participants of the prison experiment after it's all over. That's what really fascinates me- when normal people turn evil, how do they react to that fact later when they return to normal? How do they cope mentally with the knowledge that they just turned evil? Because that's really one of two main themes of this book. That is, most evil is done by normal people, just as is most heroics are done by normal people. Because of theme two: the incredible power of social contexts and situations. People have "free will", but it can be very strongly influenced by the influence of social factors. Zimbardo does a very good job explaining the second theme, but I felt he fell a little short explaining the first (and perhaps more important?) theme. Particularly since he thinks it's vital for humanity's survival that we appreciate how vulnerable we all are to social influence, and how the ultimate path to good lies in both using that social influence for positive ends and resisting that social influence when it is for immoral ends. That's a very powerful and sobering thought that is generally well explored in this book, making it certainly worth reading. It is generally well written, aimed at a broad audience, and although it sometimes seem a little self-aggrandizing, it's generally quite factual. Recommended.

A sobering read ****

Zimbardo is the creator of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, where a group of young college students were randomly split into guards and prisoners in a mock prison for two weeks to see how their roles, the context, and the situation would affect their behavior. Thanks to the intervention of an outsider (Zimbardo himself was too sucked in by the situation to notice), the experiment was stopped short after less than a week as the two groups went wildly out of control. Prisoners were rioting, having nervous breakdowns, and losing all hope while guards became sadistic and authoritarian. Zimbardo quite aptly compares it to the situation at Abu Graib. Context completely took over these normal young adults who had been screened to be just that- healthy, normal young adults.

Most of the book is about the experiment, describing it in great depth and detail. Then there's several chapters on other social science research (including Milgram's dramatic studies of authority), two LONG chapters on Abu Graib (not very interesting to this non-American), and one final chapter on heroes. In particular, this book is lacking (in my opinion) more data and commentary on the latter topic of heroes, as well as MUCH more commentary from the participants of the prison experiment after it's all over. That's what really fascinates me- when normal people turn evil, how do they react to that fact later when they return to normal? How do they cope mentally with the knowledge that they just turned evil?

Because that's really one of two main themes of this book. That is, most evil is done by normal people, just as is most heroics are done by normal people. Because of theme two: the incredible power of social contexts and situations. People have "free will", but it can be very strongly influenced by the influence of social factors. Zimbardo does a very good job explaining the second theme, but I felt he fell a little short explaining the first (and perhaps more important?) theme. Particularly since he thinks it's vital for humanity's survival that we appreciate how vulnerable we all are to social influence, and how the ultimate path to good lies in both using that social influence for positive ends and resisting that social influence when it is for immoral ends.

That's a very powerful and sobering thought that is generally well explored in this book, making it certainly worth reading. It is generally well written, aimed at a broad audience, and although it sometimes seem a little self-aggrandizing, it's generally quite factual. Recommended.

You Too Can Be Turned to the Dark Side! ****
In "Star Wars", the Jedi knight, Anakin Skywalker, gets turned to the dark side and becomes the notorious Darth Vader. The story is told in such a way that the subtle changes leading to his conversion are quite believable. We would like to think that in real life converting someone to an evil cause would be much more difficult, but in fact it turns out to be even easier than the way it happened in the movie. In this book Philip Zimbardo the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) documents how easy it is to make good people do bad things. The first part of the book is a detailed account of his "prison" experiment in which students selected as being of average disposition were assigned roles as prisoners and guards in a mock prison, and how quickly they assumed the roles they were given to play. It soon got to a point where the guard behavior became excessively cruel, some of the prisoners were on the verge of mental breakdown, and the experiment had to be aborted. Even Zimbardo himself became immersed in his role as superintendent and forgot his objectivity as the experimenter. Although I was previously aware of the SPE, I did not know that it had been in part paid for by the U.S. military through the Office of Naval Research. Strangely the author does not see anything that might be wrong with this even though the results were a pretty clear lesson in how to create stress in prisoners. He goes on to describe other work such as Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiments in which people would obey an authority figure by shocking "learners", actually actors pretending to be shocked, to the point of death. In another experiment women would even shock a puppy to the point of severe injury or death to "help" them learn. He makes it clear that systemic and institutional factors are a huge determinant of how each of us will behave in any given situation and our disposition or character can easily be manipulated. He even gives ten lessons in "Creating Evil Traps for Good People". As Walter Bagehot, an editor of The Economist Newspaper observed many years ago: the opinion of others is "a permeating influence and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's' words, to follow other men's habits." Zimbardo was hired as an expert witness for the defense of one the participants in the abuses and torture at Abu Gharib prison in Iraq to show why it was caused by the function of systemic and institutional factors and not "bad apples". He tells the history leading up to events at Abu Gharib and makes the case that it was the higher ups that created the climate that allowed the abuse to take place. The defendant was still found guilty. In the last part of the book he tries to put on a happy face, by telling us how to resist situational influences and then talks about what makes people take heroic action. One thing that detracts from his ideas of heroism however, is his inclusion of his wife as a heroic figure just because she got upset when she witnessed the effects his experiment was having. She certainly was not exposed to any of the sacrifice or risk factors he claims are needed to define heroic action. At the end I found myself thinking that his own institutional situation has to be a major factor in determining the spin he puts on his ideas, and that none of us are exempt from this. This is especially true of our leaders. George Bush has the ultimate excuse for his behavior as God wanted him to be President. In summary the book is very interesting and gives us all more excuses for our bad behavior. As Flip Wilson's character Geraldine used to say "the devil made me do it".

You Too Can Be Turned to the Dark Side! ****

In "Star Wars", the Jedi knight, Anakin Skywalker, gets turned to the dark side and becomes the notorious Darth Vader. The story is told in such a way that the subtle changes leading to his conversion are quite believable. We would like to think that in real life converting someone to an evil cause would be much more difficult, but in fact it turns out to be even easier than the way it happened in the movie.

In this book Philip Zimbardo the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) documents how easy it is to make good people do bad things. The first part of the book is a detailed account of his "prison" experiment in which students selected as being of average disposition were assigned roles as prisoners and guards in a mock prison, and how quickly they assumed the roles they were given to play. It soon got to a point where the guard behavior became excessively cruel, some of the prisoners were on the verge of mental breakdown, and the experiment had to be aborted. Even Zimbardo himself became immersed in his role as superintendent and forgot his objectivity as the experimenter.

Although I was previously aware of the SPE, I did not know that it had been in part paid for by the U.S. military through the Office of Naval Research. Strangely the author does not see anything that might be wrong with this even though the results were a pretty clear lesson in how to create stress in prisoners.

He goes on to describe other work such as Stanley Milgram's famous obedience experiments in which people would obey an authority figure by shocking "learners", actually actors pretending to be shocked, to the point of death. In another experiment women would even shock a puppy to the point of severe injury or death to "help" them learn. He makes it clear that systemic and institutional factors are a huge determinant of how each of us will behave in any given situation and our disposition or character can easily be manipulated. He even gives ten lessons in "Creating Evil Traps for Good People".

As Walter Bagehot, an editor of The Economist Newspaper observed many years ago: the opinion of others is "a permeating influence and it exacts obedience to itself; it requires us to think other men's thoughts, to speak other men's' words, to follow other men's habits."

Zimbardo was hired as an expert witness for the defense of one the participants in the abuses and torture at Abu Gharib prison in Iraq to show why it was caused by the function of systemic and institutional factors and not "bad apples". He tells the history leading up to events at Abu Gharib and makes the case that it was the higher ups that created the climate that allowed the abuse to take place. The defendant was still found guilty.

In the last part of the book he tries to put on a happy face, by telling us how to resist situational influences and then talks about what makes people take heroic action. One thing that detracts from his ideas of heroism however, is his inclusion of his wife as a heroic figure just because she got upset when she witnessed the effects his experiment was having. She certainly was not exposed to any of the sacrifice or risk factors he claims are needed to define heroic action.

At the end I found myself thinking that his own institutional situation has to be a major factor in determining the spin he puts on his ideas, and that none of us are exempt from this. This is especially true of our leaders. George Bush has the ultimate excuse for his behavior as God wanted him to be President.

In summary the book is very interesting and gives us all more excuses for our bad behavior. As Flip Wilson's character Geraldine used to say "the devil made me do it".