The Lucifer Effect
By Phillip Zimbardo
summary
In the book "The Lucifer Effect" by Phillip Zimbardo, it explores and explains what makes people turn evil. It deals with many issues that happened in the world such as the Salem Witch Trials, The Tutsi Massacre in Rwanda, and the rise of Adolf Hitler to power. He also examines The Stanford Prison Experiment and how the subjects in that experiment turned evil or they turned good when they were evil. He views when these people turned evil, who stayed the same, who kept their cool, how and why the guards acted like they did, and why these things are important and could happen to anyone. He also explores the things that people may not have control over that can make them mean and cruel such as a mental disability, power over others, being ordered to be that way by a figure of authority etc.
Phillip Zimbardo
Phillip Zimbardo is a very distinguished psychologist. He has published over 400 books, research documents, and even the 26 part series on PBS, Discovering Psychology. He has taught at many universities such as Palo Alto University, Naval Post-graduate School, Yale, NYU and Columbia. He is currently the Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He lives in San Francisco California with his wife, who is the Professor Emeritus at University of California Berkley.
Text to Self Connection
This story relates to me through someone I know. He is one of my uncles friends who went from being a U.S. Navy Seal to being a druggie and a bum due to not having money. He is in jail serving a sentence for possession with intent to distribute. He was "forced" to do these things to put food on the table and to be able to support himself. He wasn't able to get a job due to PTSD and a disabled hand. He turned "evil" do to having to provide for himself. He did those things to survive, just as the prisoners in the Stanford Prison Experiment.