The Lucifer Effect

Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

By: Philip Zimbardo

Narrated by: Kevin Foley

What makes good people do bad things? How can moral people be seduced to act immorally? Where is the line separating good from evil, and who is in danger of crossing it? Renowned social psychologist Philip Zimbardo has the answers, and in The Lucifer Effect

Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing research, Zimbardo details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women. Zimbardo is perhaps best known as the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment. Here, for the first time and in detail, he tells the full story of this landmark study, in which a group of college-student volunteers was randomly divided into guards and inmates and then placed in a mock prison environment. Within a week, the study was abandoned, as ordinary college students were transformed into either brutal, sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners. By illuminating the psychological causes behind such disturbing metamorphoses, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of harrowing phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to organized genocide to how once upstanding American soldiers came to abuse and torture Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. He replaces the long-held notion of the "bad apple" with the "bad barrel" - the idea that the social setting and the system contaminate the individual, rather than the other way around.

This is a book that dares to hold a mirror up to mankind, showing us that we might not be who we think we are. While forcing us to reexamine what we are capable of doing when caught up in the crucible of behavioral dynamics, though, Zimbardo also offers hope. We are capable of resisting evil, he argues, and can even teach ourselves to act heroically.

©2007 Philip G. Zimbardo, Inc. (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Zimbardo challenges readers] to look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective responsibility for the world's ills." ( Publishers Weekly)

The stories

It an eye opening how and why people act the way they do when circumstances change

Paradigm shifted!

Incredibly decisive proof that sadistic torture, murder, and holocausts are the result of social conditioning—not bad apples but bad systems. While some people are born psychopaths, most of us can become so with the right social script to play our role like good soldiers. From the Stanford prison experiment which he ran, to the atrocities at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, to the many other sadistic murders and genocides in modern history, Phillip Zimbardo shows us how humans shift from good guy to bad guy quite automatically when prompted and not stopped by authorities.

Everyone should listen to this at some point!

This book explains how good people end up doing bad things. It showes with great depth what happend at famous Standford prison experiment and then moves past this and broadens the picture!
I think everyone should listen to this at somepoint. It will help to make you into a bettet person that understands yourself better!

Good Read

Good for those who can remove themselves from emotional and political views and enjoy social psychology.

Interesting insight into the human condition

The book was very informative, and yes, slightly disturbing. There was great information. Though near the end the author started getting preachy. Really Preachy. While I understand scientific research needs documentation, let's not beat a dead horse into jelly.
Otherwise the information and the research which gleaned it is something that will make a person want to look in a mirror and wonder where they stand.