There are several lessons that readers can learn from Zimbardo’s book “The Lucifer Effect.” As implied in the title, the experiment indicates that it is possible for good people to become evil, just as was the case of the fallen angels who chased from heaven after their rebellion. In Chapter six of the experiment, two participants join. One helps a fellow prisoner, while the other starts a hunger strike to rebel against the guards’ authority. Chapter 7 shows the indifferent attitude that a prisoner who has been denied parole many times has toward other prisoners. Although it is often assumed that people can lean on humanity by undergoing pain, the reality is that excessive torment makes good people easily misled into perpetrators of evil.
In the sixth chapter, Father McDermott is invited to speak with the prisoners, but their situation negatively influences him. In addition, two standby respondents are asked to join the prisoners; one is Zimbardo’s provocateur but ends up helping the other prisoners, while the other starts a hunger strike. The prison environment has made them think of themselves as inmates, not people. When introducing the priest, most prisoners “just give him their numbers instead of their names” (Zimbardo 101). When people lose their sense of humanity and respect for authority, they can easily commit atrocities against others. The two new prisoners were experiencing the situation for the first time and decided to forego their assigned roles. The primary rationale for their defiance is that they could assess the internal situation and decide that the guards were the enemies. Their humanistic consciousness made them want to help the prisoners and rebel against authority.
Conclusively, the prison effect changed people’s characters, making some defiant to authority, while most became inhumane. The prisoners lost their identity and could only introduce themselves with their numbers. The additional prisoners felt the need not to continue with their assigned role as they identified more with their fellow inmates and perceived authority as evil. The refusal to get parole made the prisoner less compassionate to others. Thus, the experiment shows that people can change and act unexpectedly depending on their surroundings.
Work Cited
Zimbardo, Philip. The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. Random House, 2007.