''The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil'' is a 2007 book which includes professor

Philip Zimbardo Philip George Zimbardo (; born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment, which was later severely criticized for both ethical and scient ...

's first detailed, written account of the events surrounding the 1971

Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford prison experiment (SPE) was a psychological experiment conducted in the summer of 1971. It was a two-week simulation A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulati ...

(SPE) — a prison simulation study which had to be discontinued after only six days due to several distressing outcomes and mental breaks of the participants. The book includes over 30 years of subsequent research into the psychological and social factors which result in immoral acts being committed by otherwise moral people. It also examines the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in 2003, which has similarities to the Stanford experiment. The title takes its name from the pious story of the favored angel of God,

Lucifer Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...

, his fall from grace, and his assumption of the role of

Satan Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as Devil in Christianity, the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an non-physical entity, entity in the Abrahamic religions ...

, the embodiment of evil. The book was briefly on ''The New York Times'' Non-Fiction Best Seller and won the

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...

's 2008 William James Book Award.

Overview

The first chapter is on the book's title theme of Lucifer and on the nature of moral transformation as an outcome of the interplay between individual

disposition A disposition is a quality of character, a habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way. The terms dispositional belief and occurrent belief refer, in the former case, to a belief that is held in the mind bu ...

, situation, and systems of power. The largest portion of the book, Chapters 2 through 9, is primarily a day-by-day account of the events which transpired during the Stanford experiment, largely written in literary present tense with dialogue taken from original experiment transcripts and includes several photographs taken at the time. Chapter 10 presents the data gathered in the SPE, and Chapter 11 is an examination of the ethical questions raised about the experiment. The remainder of the book covers a number of topics within the field of social psychology, such as similar studies like the

Asch conformity experiments In psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the b ...

Milgram experiment The Milgram experiment(s) on obedience to authority figures were a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. They measured the willingness of study participants, 40 men in the age range ...

Albert Bandura Albert Bandura (; December 4, 1925 – July 26, 2021) was a Canadian-American psychologist who was the David Starr Jordan Professor in Psychology at Stanford University. Bandura was responsible for contributions to the field of education and to ...

's research on

moral disengagement Moral disengagement is a term from social psychology for the process of convincing the self that ethical standards do not apply to oneself in a particular context. This is done by separating moral reactions from inhumane conduct and disabling the me ...

, research on the

bystander effect The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present. First proposed in 1964, much research, mostly in the lab, has f ...

by John M. Darley and Bibb Latané, and Zimbardo's own later work on

deindividuation Deindividuation is a concept in social psychology that is generally thought of as the loss of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention (see below). For the social psychologist, the level of analysis is the individual in ...

. There is also an examination of the Stanford experiment's relevance to events such as the

Attica Prison riot The Attica Prison Riot, also known as the Attica Prison Rebellion, the Attica Uprising, or the Attica Prison Massacre, took place at the state prison in Attica, New York; it started on September 9, 1971, and ended on September 13 with the high ...

and the torture and abuse of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003, with a special focus on the story of Sergeant

Ivan Frederick __NOTOC__ Ivan Frederick II (born 1966) is an American former soldier who was court-martialed for prisoner abuse after the 2003–2004 Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Along with other soldiers of his Army Reserve unit, the 372nd Military Polic ...

. Zimbardo relates his experience as an expert witness for the defense at Frederick's military trial, and describes his view of what led to an "All-American poster soldier" becoming involved in the torture of prisoners. The final chapter describes the concept of heroism, the key roles of Joe Darby, the

whistleblower A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...

of the Abu Ghraib events, and

Christina Maslach Christina Maslach (born January 21, 1946) is an American social psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, known for her research on occupational burnout. She is a co-author of the Maslach Burnout I ...

, the graduate student who convinced Zimbardo to end the Stanford experiment early, and advice on how to resist negative situations.

Reviews

Rose McDermott Rose McDermott is an American political scientist who is the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations at Brown University. She has also taught at Cornell, UCSB, and Harvard. She is a member of the American Academy of ...

wrote that the book "deserves to be required reading for all those interested in the intersection of psychological processes and political reality" and suggests that several sections would make excellent assigned readings in psychology coursework, such the chapter on heroism and Chapter 12 "Investigating Social Dynamics" which she called "the single best, most insightful, and concise summary of the history of

social psychology Social psychology is the scientific study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people or by social norms. Social psychologists typically explain human behavior as a result of the r ...

I have ever read". Robert V. Levine said that " is important book should be required reading not only for social scientists, but also for politicians, decision makers, educators" and that the " bu Ghraibsection alone is worth the price of the book". Juan Manso-Pinto (

University of Concepción A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

) in a Spanish language review wrote that "''The Lucifer Effect'', more than a book, is a manual of social psychology about evil" and that though "written in English, its simple and colloquial language facilitates its reading".

Stuart Wheeler John Stuart Wheeler (30 January 193523 July 2020) was a British financier, gambler and political activist. He made his fortune as the founder of the spread betting firm IG Index in 1974, but was best known for his political activism, being a m ...

recommended the book, calling it "very readable". Ervin Staub describes it as "a highly personal book" and as one which "makes a valuable contribution", but about the Stanford Prison Experiment itself, calls it a

case study A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

rather than an experiment. Joachim I. Krueger (

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

) wrote that the book is "magnificent and timely", but offers a critical examination of the Stanford Prison Experiment, saying that if "judged against conventional standards, the SPE does not qualify as an experiment" and, bringing the interpretation back to one of disposition, said " tuations do not 'overpower' people but rather reveal latent possibilities". Theologian

Richard Holloway Richard Holloway Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE (born 26 November 1933) is a Scottish writer, Television presenter, broadcaster and cleric. He was the Bishop of Edinburgh from 1986 to 2000 and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Ch ...

wrote that Zimbardo's day-by-day account of the experiment was "too bloated and detailed... his 250-page diary unbalances the book" and that "the book is better when it tries to apply the lesson of the experiment to other contexts".

Reception

''The Lucifer Effect'' was 11th on ''The New York Times'' Non-Fiction Best Seller list for the week ending April 7, 2007.

Adaptations

Philip Zimbardo presented his work in ''The Lucifer Effect'' at TED2008. The 2015 film ''The Stanford Prison Experiment'' drew on the dialogue presented in ''The Lucifer Effect'', which was based on transcripts from the original experiment.

References

External links