I openly wept over this book

books:


	• The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil Philip Zimbardo Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008 - 576 pages average customer review:based on 62 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A must read

This is essential reading for all who are interested in Psychology, first timers, students and advanced readers. It is an absolute reference for the UNBIASED!
I am well into my eighties, with very wide experience in life from years as a Wartime Pilot, many years in very senior Corporate Management and a lifetime commitment to Community Service.
In all these roles I tended to favour the behaviour traits of people to the "Genetic Effect". But no more. Discard your bias to established opinions and dogma and open your mind. I have read many articles on the subject, Phillip Zimbardo's "The Lucifer Effect" is indeed an eyeopener. Just the Preface is enough to divert you on a new journey through this subject!

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A Plea for Ordinary Heroes

Having always been fascinated by psychology, I was excited to read that Prof. Zimbardo had finally written a book about the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). The first 200 pages go into great detail about the six days the experiment lasted (though it had been planned to last two weeks) before being cut short due to the drastic changes in both "prisoners" and "guards." The next 100 pages present his detailed examination of the different variables in the experiment, their implications then and now, the nature of good and evil, and what makes people change. The last 200 pages cover the Abu Ghraib abuses, their frightening similarity to the SPE on many levels, the call for bringing the military and governmental brass to some accountability for creating the "bad barrel" that led normal soldiers to become abusers. He ends with a description of heroism and how we can avoid being coerced by the situations and systems that surround us to act for a better world. A terrific book! Much needed.

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The Bush-bashing Effect

During his hysterical, anti-american ranting against the Bush administration, the author astonishingly suggests that the threat of terrorism is an unreal illusion and that the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States is in the realm of science fiction.

It is unfortunate that a book about such an interesting topic is ruined because of the extreme politics of the author. The subtitle of this book should have been "Understanding How Bush is evil".

I openly wept over this book

Reading this book was a chilling experience.

Basically, it deals with the issue of why seemingly good and moral people can do bad and immoral things.

In 1971 Philip Zimbardo created the "Stanford Prison Experiment" wherein a group of college-aged students took part in a mock prison experiment at Stanford University. Some took the part of prisoners and some the part of the guards. It was a grant-funded experiment that was to last for two weeks. It began on a Sunday but by the following Friday, the project was called off due to the brutal behavior of the guards and the emotionally traumatized prisoners. At the premature end of the experiment Zimbardo and his co-workers collected a lot of information and data. But most important, they did a lot of soul searching as to why the brutal behavior happened and how they, the originators of the program, may have unintentionally contributed to it.

Among others, there are references to the My Lai massacre, the Holocaust during World War Two and (most memorable for our generation) the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture horror. Zimbardo used his Stanford Prisoner experiment to help figure out why those unconscionable acts took place. It was sobering reading and while I was fascinated with what I read, there were times I had to put the book down to think, get my bearings - and cry.

Zimbardo presents many sobering insights into human nature as to why basically decent, law-abiding people can do such things. For me, two things items stand out:

1. The "bad barrel" as opposed to the "bad apple" theory. He shows how certain circumstances and events can make it easier to do wrong things. He doesn't believe in excusing circumstances to justify bad behavior, but he does show how certain environments render the wrong choices easier to make.

2. The desire for social acceptance. He quotes freely from the C. S. Lewis article "The Inner Ring" to show how the desire for acceptance into the inner circle can make otherwise good people do some bad things.

I see a twofold way to read this book:

First of all, we need to be honest with ourselves and realize that most likely, we could fall into the same trap of cruelty.

Second, although we could fall into it, we don't have to, either. Zimbardo spent a lot of time showing us heroes - both known and unknown - who had the courage to stand up to evil - including Christina Maslach, one of Zimbardo's colleagues - whom he later married!

This is a book to read carefully, to absorb and to reflect upon. There's a lot of information here, and I firmly believe that if it is read in the right attitude, it will make us better people.

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Not so black and white

Very interesting read with a valiant attempt by Dr. Zimbardo to install sensors for the dear readers to detect and counter the impact of situational forces on behaviour.
Black and white retreat in the presence of grey. One cannot underestimate the cumulative effects of our learnings and experiences in shaping the decisions we make in a given 'situational' environment.

Read and enjoy!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13

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