Review of The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo
In the last several years, in addition to my near addiction to reading, I have contributed a number of book reviews to PsycCRITIQUES: APA Review of Books along with other publications. In this context, I am convinced that The Lucifer Effect is one of the most important psychological books of this decade. Although I do not agree with all that Zimbardo has to state and believe that there are times where there is some internal contradiction in his book that is not adequately addressed, none of this takes away from the importance of this book. In the end, the most negative thing I have to say about the book is that it is unfortunate that many will not read this book because of its size and length. However, they should.
The central thesis of this book is quite simple: Situational forces, as opposed to dispositional or personal factors, are responsible for most evil. Zimbardo claims that the the fundamental attribution error, a staple in the social psychological literature, runs rampant in most conceptualizations of evil. Don't let this seemingly simple hypothesis lure you into thinking that it is not worth the time to wade through the over 500 pages of this book. Zimbardo's writing make the 500 plus pages easy to read and highly applicable.
The book begins with a detailed overview of Zimbardo's famous Stanford Prison Experiment in the first several chapters of the book. From here, Zimbardo reviews a good deal of social psychological literature relevant to evil, or why people engage in violent, aggressive, and dehumanizing behaviors. Each level of the research provides additional support to his situationist hypothesis. After building his case, Zimbardo applies it to the Abu Ghraib abuses by United States soldiers. Although clear at several points in the book that individuals need to be held accountable for their behavior, Zimbardo provides convincing evidence and arguments that systems, too, need to be held responsible. Also, individual's behaviors should be understood in the context of their environment.
Zimbardo shows his proclivity as a writer and scholar in the development of this book, a point many may unfortunately overlook. The first two-thirds of the book build and test his theory of evil, often pointing to revisions which occurred through new research discoveries. Then Zimbardo makes a brilliant application of this well-developed theory to an important and relevant case: Abu Ghraib. Finally, he uses the knowledge developed to discuss how we can prevent future evil.
The humility in which Zimbardo approaches this topic is also highly relevant. When conducting the Stanford Prison Experiment over 30 years ago, he played a role in what occurred. Zimbardo discusses very openly how he became drawn into the role of Prison Superintendent and, in doing so, lost his objectivity. He contributed to the harmful behaviors which occurred. Zimbardo is not just another intellectual critic of political processes: He speaks from his experience. In fact, he goes a step further in asserting that he, of all people, should of know better.
Zimbardo should be applauded for his courage in publishing this book. As he states, it was not easy to look back at the controversial Stanford Prison Experience. It also is courageous to use scholarly information to be critical of the political system along with Bush and the other leaders who contributed to the failure Abu Ghraib. It is not an unbalanced attack because he, too, has been there. But Zimbardo is a powerful role model in that he used this knowledge and experience to prevent the mistakes that he made. We can only hope that others will follow his lead.
Added August, 2007