The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
by Philip Zimbardo

Recommended for:
- understanding how much situations matter
- understanding how powerfully situations affect us
- understanding that in a toxic situation, a nice person can turn into a bully (or worse)
- understanding that when dealing with bullies, we also need to look at the situation

While this is not a feel-good book, it is one that everyone who works with people should read. Not so much to learn that people can be cruel to other people as to understand how and why this happens, and that given the right situation, any one of us can be cruel to another person.
To his credit, Dr. Zimbardo sets out his role in the Stanford Prison Experiment (“SPE”) that he ran at Stanford in 1971, setting out his reactions at the time and examining them in greater detail. It’s startling to realize how quickly a situation can overwhelm even the best of intentions. It’s also a good lesson that all of us can learn from.

Dr. Zimbardo describes the key lesson when he writes, “The enduring interest in the SPE over many decades comes, I think, from the experiment’s startling revelation of “transformation of character”—of good people suddenly becoming perpetrators of evil as guards or pathologically passive victims as prisoners in response to situational forces acting on them.” (at p. 210)

The lesson we need to take away is that in a toxic situation, anyone can change from a nice person into a bully and therefore, when we are dealing with a bully, we also need to look at the context, at the situation they’re in.

The good news is that after you have read The Lucifer Effect, you will have a better understanding of how much situations matter, and you will be better attuned into spotting problems and dealing with them before they get out of hand.

For more information about the processes underlying the Lucifer Effect, please see the website Dr. Zimbardo has set up, www.LuciferEffect.com.

About the author:
Philip G. Zimbardo is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Stanford University. He is a well-respected scholar and author. Please see his website http://www.zimbardo.com/ for more information about this interesting and accomplished person.

Published by Random HouseTrade Paperbacks, New York, in 2008.
ISBN 978-0-8129-7444-7

Review by Anne E. McTavish