64 pages • 2 hours read
Philip G. ZimbardoThe Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2007A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Explain why Zimbardo is responsible for the systemic effects in the Stanford Prison Experiment. How did the system create the situation? How did the situation influence individual actors?
During the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo and his team repeatedly interfered with the experiment by prodding the guards to treat prisoners harshly and creating the impression that prisoners were not free to leave. How do you think this impacted the experiment? Do these actions challenge the validity of Zimbardo’s conclusions?
Make the dispositional argument for blame in the Abu Ghraib prison abuses and rebut Zimbardo’s conclusion that situational and systemic conditions influenced the actions of the military police.
How does anonymity lead to deindividuation? Discuss methods for resisting deindividuation and evaluate their effectiveness.
Use the psychological principles Zimbardo discusses to evaluate the situational and systemic conditions governing online discourse. Make note of anonymity, deindividuation, and dehumanization.
Father McDermott states of Zimbardo’s subjects in the Stanford Prison Experiment, “These are the people you want to try to change the prison system—tomorrow’s leaders and today’s voters—and they are the ones who are going to shape community education” (103). He made this statement in 1971. Argue for or against the notion that this generation, exposed to the revelations of Zimbardo’s experiment, has changed the US prison system for the better. Provide specific examples to buttress your argument.
Using Zimbardo’s 10-step program for resisting situational influences, describe how Chip Frederick could have resisted the powerful situational forces in the prison and acted heroically.
What did President Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld do to craft the system that encouraged individuals to act in abusive ways towards Iraqis? Provide specific actions and orders. Should these three be held accountable for the abuses perpetrated by individual troops?
How could the US government have instead designed a system that encouraged benevolent behavior instead of abusive behavior towards the prisoners?
Zimbardo would like systems of justice to recognize situational and systemic factors influencing individuals’ actions. How would systems of justice recognize situational factors and incorporate them? How would they recognize systemic factors and incorporate them?
