The Lucifer Effect

The “Lucifer Effect” describes the point when an ordinary, normal person begins to cross the boundary between good and evil to take part in an evil action. Leading social psychologist Philip Zimbardo explains the reasons why everyone is 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. In this book, 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 individuals to better understand several distressing 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 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.

Within these pages, individuals will find how humans are essentially social. Thus, creating semi-permanent networks and hierarchies of interaction and that it is more than just a strategy for survival.

Zimbardo explores a set of dynamic psychological processes, which can induce good people to do evil. Among them are deindividuation, obedience to authority, passivity in the face of threats, self-justification, and rationalization. He explains that dehumanization is one of the central processes in the transformation of ordinary, normal people into indifferent or even wanton perpetrators of evil. It clouds one’s thinking and fosters the perception that other people are less than human and are seen as enemies deserving of torment, torture, and annihilation.

This book examines what individuals are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics. Zimbardo shows how to resist evil, and discusses how individuals can act heroically. He outlines a 10-step generic program to build resistance to mind control strategies and tactics. There is also a unique presentation of a thought experiment to involve people in engaging in progressively greater degrees of altruistic deeds that promote civic virtue.

The Lucifer Effect is a study that will change the way one views human behavior.