What makes good people capable of committing bad - even evil -
acts? Few psychologists are as well-qualified to answer that
question as Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor who was not
only the author of the classic Stanford Prison Experiment - which
asked two groups of students to assume the roles of prisoners and
guards in a makeshift jail, to dramatic effect - but also an active
participant in the trial of a US serviceman who took part in the
violent abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the wake of the second Gulf
War. Zimbardo's book The Lucifer Effect is an extended analysis
that aims to find solutions to the problem of how good people can
commit evil acts. Zimbardo used his problem-solving skills to
locate the solution to this question in an understanding of two
conditions. Firstly, he writes, situational factors (circumstances
and setting) must override dispositional ones, meaning that decent
and well-meaning people can behave uncharacteristically when placed
in unusual or stressful environments. Secondly, good and evil are
not alternatives; they are interchangeable. Most people are capable
of being both angels and devils, depending on the circumstances. In
making this observation, Zimbardo also built on the work of Stanley
Milgram, whose own psychological experiments had shown the impact
that authority figures can have on determining the actions of their
subordinates. Zimbardo's book is a fine example of the importance
of asking productive questions that go beyond the theoretical to
consider real-world events.
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