"The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil" is a book written by psychologist Philip Zimbardo's who in 1971 did a prison experiment at Stanford in which 24 male college students acted out the roles of guards or prisoners in a two-week study.
He randomly assigned 24 male college students to be guards or prisoners in a two-week study. He told the guards to keep order, to let nobody escape and to commit no violence.
Trouble started immediately. The guards began hitting captives with fists by Day 2. Soon they were stepping on prisoners' backs as they did pushups. Guards repeatedly awakened fellow students at night and took all blankets away. Prisoners were shut into a tiny dark closet for long periods.
Within a few days, partially nude captives were forced to simulate humiliating sex acts. The experiment was halted after six days; half the prisoners had been released early because of severe stress reactions, such as physical trembling, crying and screaming.
As for the guards, Zimbardo says they continued to resemble the all-American boys as they were profiled in the psychological tests they took before the experiment.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february28/zimbardo-022807.html
Zimbardo argues:
Nearly everyone would treat others viciously or look the other way at abuse under certain conditions, such as those in the Stanford experiment and at Abu Ghraib.
So-called inner character seldom survives if familiar social guideposts, such as family and normal routines, fall away.
Few people will challenge a widely accepted injustice.
Just as Lucifer turned from God's favorite angel into a devil, good people can turn evil if prompted by social influences, says Zimbardo in the book due in stores March 27.
Zimbardo sees key similarities in social circumstances at the Iraqi prison and the mock prison at Stanford. Abusive guards were relieved of individual identity and accountability at both places. Soldiers in the Iraqi photos often wore no uniforms or wore masks. At Stanford, guards were simply called "Mr. Correctional Officer," and they wore reflecting sunglasses. Supervision was lax in both places, and the worst abuses came at night when guards felt least observed.
Steps to dehumanize prisoners also preceded sadistic acts in both places. The college boys put bags on their prisoners' heads; hooded prisoners are shown at Abu Ghraib. Sanitary conditions were poor, hours long and boring, and neither the students nor guards in Iraq had special training.
"That doesn't mean everyone isn't responsible for their behavior," Zimbardo says. But he thinks even as most people are heavily swayed in bad situations, they'll return to their normal, decent selves once they're moored again in everyday routines.
Americans are hyper-vulnerable to social influences because we emphasize individualism, says theologian Stanley Hauerwas of Duke Divinity School. "Everyone is encouraged to be an individual, to deny the influence that communities have on us," Hauerwas says. "But that causes us to look around even more for cues on how we should be acting. It sets us up for extreme conformity....
http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/1400064112
He randomly assigned 24 male college students to be guards or prisoners in a two-week study. He told the guards to keep order, to let nobody escape and to commit no violence.
Trouble started immediately. The guards began hitting captives with fists by Day 2. Soon they were stepping on prisoners' backs as they did pushups. Guards repeatedly awakened fellow students at night and took all blankets away. Prisoners were shut into a tiny dark closet for long periods.
Within a few days, partially nude captives were forced to simulate humiliating sex acts. The experiment was halted after six days; half the prisoners had been released early because of severe stress reactions, such as physical trembling, crying and screaming.
As for the guards, Zimbardo says they continued to resemble the all-American boys as they were profiled in the psychological tests they took before the experiment.
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february28/zimbardo-022807.html
Zimbardo argues:
Nearly everyone would treat others viciously or look the other way at abuse under certain conditions, such as those in the Stanford experiment and at Abu Ghraib.
So-called inner character seldom survives if familiar social guideposts, such as family and normal routines, fall away.
Few people will challenge a widely accepted injustice.
Just as Lucifer turned from God's favorite angel into a devil, good people can turn evil if prompted by social influences, says Zimbardo in the book due in stores March 27.
Zimbardo sees key similarities in social circumstances at the Iraqi prison and the mock prison at Stanford. Abusive guards were relieved of individual identity and accountability at both places. Soldiers in the Iraqi photos often wore no uniforms or wore masks. At Stanford, guards were simply called "Mr. Correctional Officer," and they wore reflecting sunglasses. Supervision was lax in both places, and the worst abuses came at night when guards felt least observed.
Steps to dehumanize prisoners also preceded sadistic acts in both places. The college boys put bags on their prisoners' heads; hooded prisoners are shown at Abu Ghraib. Sanitary conditions were poor, hours long and boring, and neither the students nor guards in Iraq had special training.
"That doesn't mean everyone isn't responsible for their behavior," Zimbardo says. But he thinks even as most people are heavily swayed in bad situations, they'll return to their normal, decent selves once they're moored again in everyday routines.
Americans are hyper-vulnerable to social influences because we emphasize individualism, says theologian Stanley Hauerwas of Duke Divinity School. "Everyone is encouraged to be an individual, to deny the influence that communities have on us," Hauerwas says. "But that causes us to look around even more for cues on how we should be acting. It sets us up for extreme conformity....
http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/1400064112
, Reddog.
