The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

What makes good people do bad things? Renowned social pshychologist Philip Zimbardo has an answer, and in The Lucifer Effect he explains how-and why- we are all susceptible to the lure of the "dark side." Drawing on examples from history as well as his own trailblazing reasearch, Zimbardo, the creator of the Stanford Prison Experiment, details how situational forces and group dynamics can work in concert to make monsters out of decent men and women. By illuminating the causes behind this disturbing metamorphosis, and by highlighting the ways in which individuals can resist the temptation to give into evil, Zimbardo enables us to better understand a variety of phenomena, from corporate malfeasance to the prisoner abuse and torture in Abu Ghraib to organized genocide. This is a book that forces us to re-examine what we are capable of doing, individualy, and collectively.