Dr. Philip Zimbardo is a world famous social psychologist who is best known for his Stanford Prison Experiment, which inspired his research relating to deindividuation and heroism. Zimbardo is a lecturer and author and is often called upon to provide professional statements within the courtroom.
The Lucifer Effect is but one book in Zimbardo's sting of writings. In short, Zimbardo takes his experiment and applies its findings to real life situations. He does not just mention the Stanford Prison Experiment, but provides 10 chapters worth of insight into the everyday happenings, conversations and consequences of the investigation, as well as the ethical issues and explanations of the character transformations of the participants within the study. In itself, one would assume that this would be rehearsed information to any person who has read the text books and journal articles. But the truth is, this information is coming direct from Zimbardo, the creator of the famous experiment , and is far more in depth than any secondary research that I have ever read. Zimbardo clearly states that he is going to tell us exactly what happened in those 6 days of role playing and he does exactly that. He explains ever abusive behaviour, every cry for help, every sordid little detail. In some ways, too much detail. However, if unwilling to engage with Zimbardo in his writings, why buy the book in the first place, right? The whole point in this book is a personal, social, psychological and political education for the reader.
Although the focus of the book seems to be the experiment, I feel like the real message within these pages are the atrocities that occur around the world. Zimbardo gives intimate details of the workings of U.S Military, the conditions of the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, the Holocaust, the friction between Tutsi and Hutu tribes, the My Lai Massacre and the Nanking Massacre. His aim here is to illustrate that dehumanization occurs throughout the world, not just in his simulated prison setting.
The book itself is quite a large book at 488 pages not including the notes, but this is also met by the tiny font size which I suspect is so small so that the book does not exceed the number of pages that it has already used. By the time I had read the first 5 chapters on the Stanford Experiment, it became very tedious in the sense that it was filled with "On Monday at 5pm, Bob said this...." over and over again. But once I made it out of the other side, my faith was restored by considerations made this and then by the applications of psychology and judgements made as to why good people turn bad.
All in all, any person could enjoy this book, although it does contain some unexplained psychology jargon, such as research terminology, but is otherwise interesting and enjoyable. I have waiting 12 months to delve into this book with me being at University and struggling with Dyslexia and I have thoroughly enjoyed taking this journey with Zimbardo and all his other readers. It took me 22 days in total to read this book and I honestly feel like it has been time well spent and information that may have just transformed by outlook on life; how good people turn evil and how we all have choices to make poor decisions or be the everyday heroes that any one of us can become.
An overview of Zimbardo's life work can be found in one of his lectures presented on 'Ted's Talks':
An overview of Zimbardo's life work can be found in one of his lectures presented on 'Ted's Talks':
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