The Lucifer Effect by Zimbardo,
2007, Excerpts
The Lucifer Effect examines the processes of transformation
at work when good or ordinary people do bad or evil things. Evil consists in
intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse, demean, dehumanize, or destroy
innocent others – or using one’s authority and systematic power to encourage or
permit others to do so on your behalf. Evil is knowing better but doing worse.
No person or state is incapable of evil. This behavior lies
just under the surface of any of us. Each of us has the potential to be saint
or sinner, altruistic or selfish, gentle or cruel, submissive or dominant, sane
or mad, good or evil. We are born with a full range of capacities, each of
which is activated and developed depending on the social and cultural
circumstances that govern our lives. The potential for perversion is inherent
in the very processes that make human beings do all the wonderful things we do.
Some of the world’s evil result from ordinary people
operating in circumstances that selectively elicit bad behavior from their
natures. They are so evil we couldn’t ever see ourselves doing the same thing.
But if you consider the terrible pressure under which people were operating,
then you automatically reassert their humanity – and that becomes alarming. You
are forced to look at the situation and say, “What would I have done?”
Sometimes the answer is not encouraging.
It is through understanding how such forces operate that we
can resist, oppose, and prevent them from leading us into undesirable
temptation. Such knowledge can liberate us from subjugation to the mighty grasp
of conformity, compliance, persuasion, and other forms of social influence and
coercion. Although evil can exist in any setting, we look most closely into its
breeding ground in prisons and wars. They typically become crucibles, in which
authority, power, and dominance are blended and, when covered over by secrecy,
suspend our humanity, and rob us of the qualities we humans value most: caring,
kindness, cooperation, and love.
Abu Ghraib Series – WIP
The Lucifer Effect by Zimbardo, 2007, Excerpts
Psychological
analysis is not “excusiology.” Individuals and groups who behave immorally or
illegally must still be held responsible for their complicity and crimes.
However, the situational and systemic factors that caused their behavior must
be taken into account.
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