The Lucifer Effect
The Lucifer Effect:
A Book Review
The Lucifer Effect is a novel that focuses on the sole question, “What makes good people do bad things?” a question the book’s author, Phillip Zimbardo, is eager to answer. Throughout the novel, Zimbardo focuses on explaining the theories behind our senses of conformity and our perceptions of humanity through interweaving psychological theory and experimentation with real world examples. Such can be observed with the chapters dedicated to the Stanford Prison Experiment and the abuses and tortures experienced in Abu Ghraib.
In both situations, the background and “character mold” required many feasibly good people to transform into “monsters.” Prisoners at Abu Ghraib were humiliated, tortured and had that abuse immortalized onto photographs. Yet when the background and personalities of the prison guards was examined, many showed to be quite “good” people; people with no recorded felon or misdeed; people who were considered to be the prime example for “the Good Samaritan.” When this experiment is contrasted with the Stanford prison experiment, horrifying truths about human nature are revealed. Zimbardo discovered that those who were assigned the role of prison guard, soon altered their personality and actions to conform with the image, doing whatever necessary to sedate or dehumanize the prisoners. However this not only affected the guards, the prisoners changed as well. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, those students who had been assigned the role of prisoner changed dramatically in the first twenty-four hours of the experiment. One prisoner reported feeling trapped and caged in, despite having the freedom to leave the experiment whenever they desired.
The novel explains the extent to which conformity, dehumanization and moral indifference plays a massive factor into human behavior. It reveals that you don’t have to be a bad or evil person to commit evil deeds.
The psychology and backdrop surrounding the events and the
A Book Review
The Lucifer Effect is a novel that focuses on the sole question, “What makes good people do bad things?” a question the book’s author, Phillip Zimbardo, is eager to answer. Throughout the novel, Zimbardo focuses on explaining the theories behind our senses of conformity and our perceptions of humanity through interweaving psychological theory and experimentation with real world examples. Such can be observed with the chapters dedicated to the Stanford Prison Experiment and the abuses and tortures experienced in Abu Ghraib.
In both situations, the background and “character mold” required many feasibly good people to transform into “monsters.” Prisoners at Abu Ghraib were humiliated, tortured and had that abuse immortalized onto photographs. Yet when the background and personalities of the prison guards was examined, many showed to be quite “good” people; people with no recorded felon or misdeed; people who were considered to be the prime example for “the Good Samaritan.” When this experiment is contrasted with the Stanford prison experiment, horrifying truths about human nature are revealed. Zimbardo discovered that those who were assigned the role of prison guard, soon altered their personality and actions to conform with the image, doing whatever necessary to sedate or dehumanize the prisoners. However this not only affected the guards, the prisoners changed as well. In the Stanford Prison Experiment, those students who had been assigned the role of prisoner changed dramatically in the first twenty-four hours of the experiment. One prisoner reported feeling trapped and caged in, despite having the freedom to leave the experiment whenever they desired.
The novel explains the extent to which conformity, dehumanization and moral indifference plays a massive factor into human behavior. It reveals that you don’t have to be a bad or evil person to commit evil deeds.
The psychology and backdrop surrounding the events and the