Philip Zimbardo

Philip George Zimbardo (March 23, 1933 – October 14, 2024) was a psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He was president of the Heroic Imagination Project, famous for his Stanford prison study involving Groupthink processes and for authorship of various introductory psychology books and textbooks for college students, including The Lucifer Effect and The Time Paradox.

The “Lucifer Effect” describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action.

Quotes

If you observe such abuses and don’t say, “This is wrong! Stop it!” you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.

• I summarize more than 30 years of research on factors that can create a "perfect storm" which leads good people to engage in evil actions. This transformation of human character is what I call the "Lucifer Effect," named after God's favorite angel, Lucifer, who fell from grace and ultimately became Satan.
  Rather than providing a religious analysis, however, I offer a psychological account of how ordinary people sometimes turn evil and commit unspeakable acts.
  • In his introduction to his site on The Lucifer Effect (2007)

• Whether we consider Nazi Germany or Abu Ghraib prison, there were many people who observed what was happening and said nothing. At Abu Ghraib, one photo shows two soldiers smiling before a pyramid of naked prisoners while a dozen other soldiers stand around watching passively. If you observe such abuses and don’t say, “This is wrong! Stop it!” you give tacit approval to continue. You are part of the silent majority that makes evil deeds more acceptable.
  • "The Banality of Heroism" in The Greater Good (Fall/Winter 2006/2007), co-written with Zeno Franco

• The idea of the banality of heroism debunks the myth of the “heroic elect,” a myth that reinforces two basic human tendencies. The first is to ascribe very rare personal characteristics to people who do something special — to see them as superhuman, practically beyond comparison to the rest of us. The second is the trap of inaction — sometimes known as the "bystander effect." Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people witnessing an emergency all assume someone else will help. Like the “good guards,” we fall into the trap of inaction when we assume it’s someone else’s responsibility to act the hero.
  • "The Banality of Heroism" in The Greater Good (Fall/Winter 2006/2007), co-written with Zeno Franco

• The “Lucifer Effect” describes the point in time when an ordinary, normal person first crosses the boundary between good and evil to engage in an evil action. It represents a transformation of human character that is significant in its consequences. Such transformations are more likely to occur in novel settings, in “total situations,” where social situational forces are sufficiently powerful to overwhelm, or set aside temporally, personal attributes of morality, compassion, or sense of justice and fair play.

Evil is the exercise of power to intentionally harm (psychologically), hurt (physically), or destroy (mortally or spiritually) others.

• In "Who was Lucifer and how did he become the Devil?" (2007)

Stanford prison experiment (1971)

We're going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what all this leads to is a sense of powerlessness. That is, in this situation we'll have all the power and they'll have none.

This was a controversial study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard conducted at Stanford University from August 14 to August 20 in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Zimbardo. Twenty-four male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture, leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations.

• You can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they'll have no privacy... We're going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what all this leads to is a sense of powerlessness. That is, in this situation we'll have all the power and they'll have none.
  • Zimbardo to those selected to be "prison guards"

Quotes about Zimbardo

It becomes clear that the Asch, Milgram and Zimbardo experiments replicated, in a compressed time, the dynamics of authority and groupthink that play a critical role in our socialization. ~ Toni Raiten-D'Antonio

• It is not just rank-and-file psychologists who are protesting. Former APA president Philip Zimbardo is an international expert on interrogation and torture, and the author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. We asked for his response to the oft-repeated argument that psychologists can protect prisoners from abuse. "I think that's a lie," he told us. "Nobody is paying psychologists to go to the prison to make life easier for the prisoners. Psychologists in operation in Guantánamo Bay, in Abu Ghraib, in Afghanistan have almost no power to make any meaningful change. They are hired guns. You do what the boss wants, or you don't get back. So to say that psychologists are needed to maintain the dignity of prisoners, their health and so forth-that has no basis in reality."
  • Amy Goodman Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times (2008)

• It becomes clear that the Asch, Milgram and Zimbardo experiments replicated, in a compressed time, the dynamics of authority and groupthink that play a critical role in our socialization. Asch showed that once the standard is set, people will adopt it and go along with it, even if it is illogical. When the stakes are raised, as they were in Milgram's work, people may struggle with unethical commands, but the majority still obey. And when authorities set parameters but leave the decision-making to the rest of us, we still have a tendency to impose strict control on those we consider deviant. All of these findings affirm the power of culture, socialization, and our widespread fear that we will be judged and punished.
  Since human beings have a desperate need for safety, approval, and belonging (which yields access to group resources), the worst kind of punishment is ostracism. This shunning may be subtle or extreme.
  • Toni Raiten-D'Antonio, in Ugly as Sin : The Truth about How We Look and Finding Freedom from Self-Hatred (2010), Ch. 8 : Difference as Deviance p. 89

External links

• Zimbardo's official website
• Speaking at the TED conferences
• C-SPAN appearances
• Philip Zimbardo on IMDb
• Philip Zimbardo on the Lucifer Effect, in two parts
• Profile at the Social Psychology Network
• The Lucifer Effect : Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
• "The Banality of Heroism" in The Greater Good (Fall/Winter 2006/2007)

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